Archive for the 'Compliance' Category
April 9, 2014
I work with many companies and associations in relation to their competition law compliance requirements. In this regard, a new corporate governance text, encompassing a number of compliance areas with sample codes, caught my eye earlier today entitled: International Standards: Annotated Corporate Social Responsibility Codes.
April 8, 2014
Earlier today, the Competition Bureau announced that one company and two individuals have pleaded guilty to price-fixing under the Competition Act in relation to an ocean freight cartel (see: here). According to the Bureau, these pleas relate to a price-fixing cartel for various ocean freight related surcharges (including surcharges for currency exchange rate fluctuations and fuel) in operation from 2005 to 2011, which included agreements on rates or formulas used to calculate rates for various surcharges.
April 4, 2014
The Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia (CLE BC) has published its Annual Review of Law & Practice – 2014. This summary of major areas of Canadian law applicable in British Columbia includes my co-authored chapter on Canadian competition law developments and trends in 2013.
March 30, 2014
Canada’s Competition Bureau has issued a number of new anti-cartel (Competition Act conspiracy) compliance materials, including an updated version of its Bid-Rigging Pamphlet and two new pamphlets: a Competitor Collaboration Pamphlet (a more comprehensive set of Bureau enforcement guidelines on this topic already exists) and an entirely new Trade Associations Pamphlet.
The Bureau had been planning to issue a standalone Bulletin on associations several years ago, but has evidently opted to rely on the association related discussion in its Competitor Collaboration Guidelines and this newly issued short pamphlet. The Bureau has also issued a new video on competition law compliance.
March 13, 2014
Guest post by Tamara Dini
(Director, Bowman Gilfillan)
In October last year, Takata Corp. of Japan announced that it would pay US$71.3 million to settle charges of competition law infringements brought by U.S. prosecutors over price-fixing on seat belts sold to vehicle manufacturers. This proposed settlement was one of many in a long-running investigation by competition law authorities in several countries into price-fixing in relation to more than 30 types of car parts, including seat belts, radiators, windshield wipers, air-conditioning systems, power window motors and power steering components.
March 3, 2014
In what can only be described as a somewhat sobering announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced earlier today that a former prime contractor manager has been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison in an ongoing bid-rigging, fraud and kickback case. According to the DoJ, this is the longest sentence ever imposed in the U.S. involving an antirust crime.
March 3, 2014
Earlier today, following its recent Global Forum on Competition, the OECD has published an interesting new report with international contributions on corruption and competition entitled Fighting Corruption and Promoting Competition. This new report includes submissions from Canada (the Competition Bureau) as well as a number of other leading jurisdictions including the United States.
February 25, 2014
Guest post by Burt Braverman
(Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)
Professional and trade associations contribute to the public welfare in many ways, including disseminating information, promoting research, developing standards and spurring industry initiatives. But such associations generally are composed primarily of actual or potential competitors, and sometimes seemingly benign conduct—including even actions intended to promote the ethical conduct of an association’s members—can have untoward consequences for third parties, association members and the association itself, including potential antitrust liability. The recent announcement by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of consent decrees entered into by two professional associations—the first representing music teachers, and the other representing legal support services providers—highlights this risk and the need for professional and trade associations to guard against their codes of ethics, and also their policies, standards, rules and procedures, being co-opted for potentially anticompetitive purposes.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
