Archive for the 'Conspiracy' Category
December 17, 2013
Codes of ethics are a common and ubiquitous aspect of many trade and professional associations. A well prepared and thought out association code can achieve a number of legitimate aims, including ensuring that members adhere to the common goals and principles of the association, reducing legal liability and risk and enhancing the brand of members’ product or service offerings.
November 21, 2013
Canada’s (relatively new now) Commissioner of Competition is on the road at the moment, having delivered remarks yesterday in India. In a short but focused speech in Kashipur India, the Commissioner focused quite a bit on the history of Canadian competition law, the importance of competition to an effective economy and compliance.
November 15, 2013
Canada’s new Commissioner of Competition, John Pecman, delivered remarks yesterday in Toronto centered around what he has been referring to recently as the “4Cs” (the Competition Bureau’s four current areas of focus: compliance; communication; collaboration; and Canadians). As part of his remarks, as he has been doing since last fall, he once again discussed trade associations, and in particular association compliance and the importance of adopting credible and effective competition law compliance programs.
November 15, 2013
The Americans are not ones to pussy foot around when it comes to economic crime. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights held cartel related hearings bluntly entitled “Time Change: Cartel Prosecution: Stopping Price Fixers and Protecting Consumers”. Testimony included remarks by William Baer (Assistant A.G. in the DoJ’s Antitrust Division), Ronald Hosko (Assistant Director in the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division) and several academics and private antitrust practitioners. Witness testimony has now been posted along with a webcast – see: here.
November 13, 2013
Given the recently increased focus on criminal competition law matters (e.g., cartels) and whistleblowing, the latter in the competition law world and corporate crime area generally, I thought I would launch a new whistleblowing page on the blog. A kind of rolling compilation of Canadian competition law whistleblowing information. For my first go at a few key recent Canadian competition law whistleblowing sources see: whistleblowers or below. As usual for my competition law overviews, I’ve endeavoured to include a few quotes that I’ve come across and thought were really rather good, including Ralph Nadar’s inaugural definition of “whistleblower” from the 1970s.
November 11, 2013
In one of the most interesting stories that caught my eye on my daily media sweep today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that some of the U.S. big banks are considering blocking employees from computer chat rooms, based on growing market manipulation and collusion scrutiny from regulators (see: Big Banks May Block Traders From Chat Rooms). According to the WSJ, J.P. Morgan Chase and Credit Suisse are weighing whether to disable computerized chat rooms that link traders across multiple competing banks and are used by thousands of employees globally. Other banks, including RBS, Barclays and UBS, are reported to be reviewing chat room use and guidelines for controlling and monitoring communications.
October 30, 2013
Canada’s Supreme Court is expected to release a long awaited indirect purchaser competition class action decision tomorrow. This case, and the tortuous (and conflicting) lower court appellate decisions before it in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, is expected to clarify the right of “indirect purchasers” to commence Competition Act class actions (i.e., consumers or other parties that have not purchased products directly from parties to a price-fixing or other cartel agreement). In advance of this important decision, commentary for and against indirect purchaser class action rights has once again begun, including today with a new C.D. Howe Institute report that advocates in favor of the right of indirect purchasers’ right to commence class actions.
October 25, 2013
Canada’s new Commissioner of Competition, John Pecman, spoke in Toronto yesterday and delivered remarks that, as in recent speeches, included an emphasis on trade association compliance. In this, his second speech since becoming Commissioner, the Commissioner signaled that trade and professional associations were once again on the Competition Bureau’s radar.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
