Practical Law Canada Competition, of which I am Lawyer Editor, published a new Legal Update that discusses sweeping proposed amendments to Canada’s Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34 (Competition Act) by the federal government. The proposed amendments include significant changes to the conspiracy, criminal and civil deceptive marketing, abuse of dominance, civil agreements and merger provisions of the Competition Act.
Below is an extract of Practical Law Canada Competition’s new Legal Update with a link to the full Update.
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This Legal Update discusses the Ways and Means Motion issued by the federal Department of Finance, which includes significant proposed amendments to the Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34. This Update discusses the key proposed amendments to the conspiracy, criminal and civil misleading representations, abuse of dominance, civil agreements and merger provisions of the Competition Act and implications if the amendments are passed.
On April 24, 2022, the federal Department of Finance released the Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce an Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022 and other measures and Explanatory Notes(Budget Bill). The Budget Bill includes proposed amendments to a number of federal statutes, including anticipated wide-ranging changes to the Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34, including to the conspiracy, criminal and civil deceptive marketing, abuse of dominance, civil agreements and merger provisions.
The draft legislation follows the recent announcement by the federal government in its 2022 Budget to modernize the Competition Act and extensive recommendations for competition law reform made by the Competition Bureau (Bureau). For more information, see Legal Updates, Competition Bureau Recommends Sweeping Competition Act Amendments and Commissioner of Competition Calls for Modernization of Canadian Competition Law.
In general, the federal government’s intentions in amending the Competition Act are to fix existing loopholes, tackle potentially harmful upstream wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements between competing employers, expand private access to the Competition Tribunal for abuse of dominance and increase the penalties under key provisions, including under the conspiracy and abuse of dominance provisions (see Budget 2022: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable, Government of Canada, at page 72). If passed, the proposed amendments would be the most significant changes to the Competition Act since 2009.
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For the full Legal Update, see: here.
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