March 21, 2010
The pre-merger notification provisions of the Competition Act (the “Act”) require both parties to specified types of transactions that exceed the statutory monetary thresholds under the Act to file pre-merger notification filings with the federal Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”).
March 14, 2010
On March 12, 2010, the Canadian Competition Bureau announced the coming into force of Canada’s new two-track conspiracy regime: “The Competition Bureau is pleased to announce that amended provisions of the Competition Act relating to competitor collaborations come into force today.
March 8, 2010
Canada’s new criminal conspiracy rules will come into force Friday March 12, 2010. The changes, which are the final recent Competition Act amendments to come into force, will significantly change the enforcement of criminal cartels in Canada and is expected to also have significant impacts on competition law private actions and class actions. Effective Friday, Canada will have three new criminal conspiracy offences for “hard core” cartel conduct, making bare price fixing, market allocation/division and supply restriction agreements per se illegal – i.e., without the necessity of establishing any anti-competitive effects on a relevant market (or markets). The penalties for contravening the conspiracy provisions will also more than double with fines of up to CDN $25 million and/or imprisonment for up to fourteen years.
February 20, 2010
OVERVIEW OF CANADIAN COMPETITION LAW
“The statute proceeds upon the footing that the preventing or lessening of competition is in itself an injury to the public. It is not concerned with public injury or public benefit from any other standpoint.”
(Howard Smith Paper Mills Ltd. v. The Queen, [1957] S.C.R. 403)
February 12, 2010
Steve Szentesi will be chairing and speaking and Tom Hakemi will be speaking at an upcoming CLE BC competition law seminar on March 18, 2010 in Vancouver at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel: Canada’s New Competition & Foreign Investment Law 2010. This upcoming half day practitioner-oriented seminar, which will be held one week after the final amendments to Canada’s Competition Act come into force, will review the major changes to Canada’s competition and foreign investment law regimes.
February 12, 2010
The Alliance for Canadian Real Estate Education (ACRE) and The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) will be launching a national competition law course for Canadian REALTORS: Competition Law & REALTORS.
February 20, 2010
OVERVIEW
Sweeping amendments to Canada’s federal Competition Act (the “Act”) were recently passed that are the most significant changes to Canadian competition law in twenty-five years. Included are changes to most of the cornerstone provisions of the Act including to the criminal conspiracy, bid rigging, criminal pricing, price maintenance, abuse of dominance, misleading advertising and merger notification provisions.
February 8, 2010
The Alliance for Canadian Real Estate Education (ACRE) and The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) will be launching a national competition law course for Canadian REALTORS: Competition Law & REALTORS.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
