Archive for the 'Events' Category
November 8, 2012
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions across Canada, including in Gatineau/Ottawa, Halifax, Montreal, Edmonton and Toronto from November 14th to December 12th on intellectual property issues for small and medium-size enterprises. From CIPO:
“CIPO will host a series of roundtable discussions with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to better understand their challenges and barriers in using the IP system. These discussions are taking place as part of CIPO’s regulatory and mandate reviews, and will assist in developing new products and tools to better serve SMEs.”
For more information, including cities and dates, see: CIPO invites innovative SMEs to participate in roundtable discussions.
On November 5th, in somber but not altogether unexpected remarks, Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay resigned following the termination or suspension of a number of City of Montreal employees in the midst of the ongoing Quebec construction corruption probe.
In his resignation speech, the Mayor said that his father told him politics was a “dirty business”, that he had heard of “brown envelopes” for the award of construction contracts in Quebec though denied that he had ever seen them, accepted full responsibility, said that some of his staff had “betrayed his trust” and concluded by saying to Montreal residents that he never betrayed them.
This case has involved testimony of allegations of violations of federal and provincial criminal and competition laws, including violations of the criminal bid-rigging provisions of the Competition Act.
In a speech earlier today, the new Interim Commissioner of Competition, John Pecman, in his first published remarks as Commissioner, discussed compliance, current Bureau enforcement policies and ongoing cases.
Some of the noteworthy aspects of the Interim Commissioner’s remarks include highlighting the Bureau’s continued enforcement in key areas (notably criminal cartel enforcement, including its Immunity and Leniency Programs, and abuse of dominance), highlighting the recent signals in the Maxzone case that the Federal Court will take a stricter approach to sentencing in cartel matters, and in particular compliance programs urging Canadian companies to adopt compliance programs (and discussing the risk of non-compliance and reputational benefits of adopting a credible program).
Compliance
Given that this speech was Mr. Pecman’s first official one as Interim Commissioner, and delivered at a national law firm seminar for firm clients, it is perhaps not surprising that his remarks focused on compliance:
“… the Bureau promotes compliance through enforcement and it provides the education and the tools that assist the corporate community in developing corporate compliance programs. We all know businesses and individuals have a duty to act lawfully — and, the Bureau expects that businesses and their senior management, on the whole, want to comply with the law. It is our hope that by now, it is clear that the legal, economic and reputational risks of non-compliance far outweigh any perceived advantages. Non-compliance costs businesses dearly – not just in terms of financial and legal penalties, but through negative publicity, loss of business opportunities and lost management time. While I suspect that you recognize the value of a compliance program and that many of you have clearly established compliance policies that identify and address questionable behaviour — and aim to prevent it from occurring in the first place, let me take a few minutes to expand on the benefits of such a program.”
The Commissioner reiterated the five elements that are in the Bureau’s view necessary for an effective compliance program: senior management involvement and support; compliance policies and procedures; training and education; monitoring, auditing and reporting mechanisms; and consistent disciplinary procedures and incentives.
Some of the specific compliance themes the Commissioner discussed included compliance programs that are not followed, the importance of senior management promotion of compliance policies and monitoring and internal power to enforce policies. The Commissioner was particularly critical of compliance programs that were well prepared but not followed or effectively delivered. In this regard, the Interim Commissioner said that “the issue is not [a compliance program’s] content, or [its] quality – the issue is internal enforcement …”
Trade Association Compliance
Interestingly, the Interim Commissioner also made a number of specific remarks relating to trade associations. These included highlighting the particular potential risks of associations (saying that associations face “unique compliance issues” and are “naturally exposed to greater risks of anti-competitive behavior”) and emphasizing the importance for associations to have effective compliance programs.
The Interim Commissioner also said that the Bureau would be likely to show an interest in trade association conduct where they engaged in three categories of conduct: (i) restricting the types of professional service practice offerings (e.g., setting limits on things like office location or size); (ii) limiting the number or range of members’ ability to compete (e.g., through mandatory or suggested fee schedules or product standards); or (iii) conduct that reduces incentives to compete vigorously (e.g., information sharing agreements and the exchange of competitively sensitive information).
I am pleased to be delivering two upcoming competition law compliance courses (Competition Law and REALTORS®) for the members of the Kamloops (November 26th) and Victoria (November 29th) real estate boards.
The compliance seminars will include overviews of Canadian competition law enforcement, the Competition Bureau, the conspiracy, misleading advertising, price maintenance and abuse of dominance provisions of the Competition Act and practical real estate related case studies.
Competition Law and REALTORS®: What You Say and Do Matters is a national competition law compliance course designed by the Alliance for Canadian Real Estate Education with the assistance of The Canadian Real Estate Association to help Canadian REALTORS® understand and comply with Canadian competition law. While Canadian competition law applies to all real estate professionals, this course was designed specifically for REALTORS®. This course provides an overview in plain language of Canadian competition law and practical compliance guidelines to assist REALTORS® in complying with Canadian competition law and a number of illustrative case studies.
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Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) will be hosting two upcoming seminars on privacy in Toronto and Montreal entitled “The Truth About Privacy: Canada and Beyond”. According to the ASC, the seminars are based on a recent McCann study on how Canadian and worldwide consumers think about privacy.
From the ASC:
“In a transparent world where virtually all aspects of our lives have become digitized, the question of personal privacy keeps arising. What do consumers really think about privacy? To find out, McCann Truth Central asked over 6,000 people worldwide what privacy means to them. With ASC’s support, McCann has now extended its research to include 1,000 Canadians. In this ground-breaking study, McCann probed many areas, including: where do people draw the line between public and private information?; when do consumers feel their privacy has been violated?; what motivates consumers to share their data?; how do Canadian perceptions of privacy stack up against the rest of the world?; how can advertisers manage data as an opportunity and not a risk? Join us as Laura Simpson and David Tucker from McCann Truth Central, McCann’s global thought leadership unit, share the extraordinary insights gleaned from this important study. ASC will also provide an update on our industry’s new self-regulatory framework for online behavioural advertising and the launch of the Digital Advertising Association of Canada.”
In the second of two recent major announcements (the first being yesterday’s release of the CRTC’s inaugural guidelines under Canada’s impending anti-spam legislation – see: here), Canada’s telecom regulator today announced public consultations on a new mandatory wireless code. The thrust of the new consultations appears to be primarily two-fold: to impose guidelines for contracts (e.g., increased clarity of terms, required terms, changes to terms, cancellation, expiry, renewals, etc.) and reduce potential misleading advertising related issues.
While the CRTC has allowed market forces to govern the wireless industry since the early-1990s, this new announcement shows some willingness by the CRTC to regulate Canada’s concentrated wireless sector (albeit at this stage through a mandatory code of conduct). In making the announcement, the CRTC’s Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said:
“Our goal is to make sure that Canadians have the tools they need to make informed choices in a competitive marketplace. … In the past, Canadians have told us that contracts are confusing, and that terms and conditions can vary greatly from one company to another. We are asking them to assist us in developing a code that will help them better understand their rights as consumers and the responsibilities of wireless companies.”
The CRTC’s Notice of Consultation describes the rationale for the new consultation and code:
“In Telecom Decision 2012-556, the Commission determined that it would be appropriate to develop a code for retail mobile wireless data and voice services (mobile wireless services) to ensure the clarity of mobile wireless service contracts and related issues for consumers. The Commission concluded that consumers need additional tools to better understand their basic rights, as well as their service providers’ responsibilities with respect to mobile wireless services, in order to participate in the competitive market in an informed and effective manner. With this Notice of Consultation, the Commission initiates a proceeding to establish a mandatory code to address the clarity and content of mobile wireless service contracts and related issues … The code developed as a result of this proceeding is intended to provide a clear and concise list of consumers’ rights and service providers’ responsibilities regarding mobile wireless services.”
The following are a few developments from our friends at the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL):
Winners of the Ronald St. John Macdonald Award
CCIL extends its congratulations to the two student winners of the Ronald St. John Macdonald award: Andréanne Charpentier-Garant (Graduate category) and Alix Tolliday (Undergraduate category). Ms. Charpentier-Grant recently concluded her LLM at Utrecht University, having completed her undergraduate law degree at UQAM. Alix Tolliday is completing a JD at the University of Victoria. Congratulations to both – it was no small thing to win this award, given the quality of the roughly 50 papers we received. (Some good summer reading.)
Both will now present their papers at the CCIL annual conference Nov 8-11. In relation to that conference, we would certainly welcome your registration. Many have already registered and thank you if you are among them. We are looking forward to a terrific event with many notable speakers, including Philippe Sands QC. More information is on the preliminary program at www.ccil-ccdi.ca/ccil-program/.
Canadian Yearbook of International Law
On behalf of the Canadian Yearbook of International Law, I would like to bring to your attention the Yearbook’s Call for Papers for its next volume. That call has been posted on the CCIL website at bit.ly/T4Iggb. I hope you will consider publishing in this excellent venue.
Upcoming Canadian Bar Association National Competition Law Section Events:
1. The Reviewable Matters/Unilateral Conduct Committee of the CBA’s National Competition Law Section and the The Pricing Conduct Committee of the International Committee of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law present: Canadian Pricing Law – Wednesday, October 24, 2012 – 12:00 – 1:30 pm ET – 9:00 – 10:30 am PT – Details and Registration.
2. The Economics & Law Committee of the CBA’s Competition Law Section and the ABA’s Economics Committee present: Recent Developments in Two-Sided Markets in US and Canada – Tuesday, October 30, 2012 – 12:00-1:15 pm ET – 9:00-10:15 PT – Details and Registration.
3. The Criminal Matters Committee of the CBA’s Competition Law Section and the ABA Section of International Law present: Cartel Enforcement in Smaller Jurisdictions – Issues and Challenges – November 6, 2012 (1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) – Details and Registration.
For more information see: National Competition Law Section.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
