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2022 proved to be an interesting year in the advertising, marketing and product compliance space in Canada. From changes to labelling requirements for foods and natural health products, amendments to [...]

Significant amendments to Canada's Competition Act (Act) dominated discussion about Canadian competition law policy and enforcement in 2022. Given the full implementation of the first round of amendments and the [...]

Overview On Jan. 18, 2023, the Canadian Competition Bureau (the Bureau) issued draft enforcement guidelines on wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements (the Guidelines) that describe how the Bureau plans to enforce [...]

Byline: TIM KILADZE; Staff Matthew Boswell, Canada's Commissioner of Competition, is all but begging for substantive changes to the federal Competition Act, and he's out for legal blood to make [...]

Byline: ERIC ATKINS; Staff Canada's competition watchdog says WestJet Airlines' proposed takeover of Sunwing Airlines and Sunwing Vacations will lead to higher airfares and fewer options for travellers. The Competition [...]

Byline: John Lorinc Call it Canada's summer of discontent. Air travel sucked. The supermarket chains were gouging. Gas prices went crazy. And then, like a sour cherry on top of [...]

VIEW ALL Q4 2022 GLOBAL GUIDE QUARTERLY UPDATES DOWNLOAD FULL Q4 2022 GLOBAL GUIDE QUARTERLY Canada's Competition Act Will Soon Criminally Prohibit Wage-Fixing and No-Poaching Agreements Between Unaffiliated Employers New [...]

The Competition Bureau lost its high-profile challenge of Rogers Communications Inc.'s acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc. The Competition Tribunal held that the Bureau's challenge ignored the parties' proposed divestiture of [...]

The Competition Act has been amended to include a new criminal offence for employers that enter into agreements to fix wages, or that agree not to solicit or hire each [...]

As we reported in a previous issue of this newsletter, in June 2022, the Canadian government enacted amendments to the Competition Act (the Act) intended to prohibit agreements between and [...]

When Bill C-19, Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1 received Royal Assent in June 2022, it amended Canada's Competition Act(Act) by including a new provision, s. 45(1.1), which comes into [...]

On January 18, 2023, Canada's Competition Bureau (Bureau) published, in draft, highly anticipated guidance (Draft Guidance) outlining its views on the new criminal prohibition against agreements or arrangements between unaffiliated [...]

Regulatory and tax considerations private equity firms should focus on when investing in Canada The first nine months of 2022 have seen global M&A activity levels fall substantially from the [...]

For the first time in over a decade, and after years of sustained advocacy by the Commissioner of Competition (the 'Commissioner'), substantial reform was enacted to the Competition Act in [...]

1 Relevant Authorities and Legislation 1.1 Who is/are the relevant merger authority(ies)? The Competition Bureau (the 'Bureau') is an independent, federal law enforcement agency responsible for the administration and enforcement [...]

As discussed in our previous blog post, on November 17, 2022, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, launched the much anticipated public consultation on the second [...]

OVERVIEW Justice Mayer of the British Columbia Supreme Court (the Court) recently issued reasons for judgment1 partially staying a proposed class proceeding in favour of arbitration. The arbitration agreement arose [...]

As discussed in our previous blog post, on November 17, 2022, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, launched the much anticipated public consultation on the second [...]

On October 25, 2022, the Competition Bureau published its new Information Bulletin on Transparency, which explains the approach the Bureau will take when communicating with different groups of people during [...]

On June 23, 2022, the Competition Act (the 'Act') was amended as a result of the Budget Implementation Act, 2022 (the 'Amendments'). Some of the changes to the Act are [...]

Welcome to the November issue of Blakes Competitive Edge, a monthly publication of the Blakes Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group. Blakes Competitive Edge provides an overview of recent developments [...]

'The penalties are significant. They can include imprisonment for a maximum of 14 years and the payment of a fine that has no cap or ceiling.' Julia Potter, Partner in [...]

selfEpisode 25 - Canada's Competition Act to Ban Wage-Fixing and No-Poach Agreements self Although a late adopter, Canada will soon be criminalizing wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements between businesses.In the latest [...]

On November 17, 2022 the Minister of Industry, Science and Innovation, Fran[double dagger]ois-Philippe Champagne released a long-awaited discussion paper on the future of competition policy in Canada. The paper outlines [...]

On November 17, 2022, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, launched the much anticipated public consultation for potential amendments to the Competition Act (the 'Act'). As [...]

As previewed in our earlier publication on the recent amendments to the Competition Act (the 'Act'), new prohibitions on wage-fixing and no-poach agreements will be coming into force on June [...]

Between 2010 and 2018, five class actions involving merchant fees were launched in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan (collectively, the Class Actions).1 One of the outcomes to the [...]

McMillan is authoring a number of bulletins to assist clients in navigating the quickly developing regulatory regime surrounding ESG issues. An introductory bulletin can be found here. This bulletin focuses [...]

Summary On Oct. 31, 2022, the Canadian Competition Tribunal (the Tribunal) issued its decision1 in the merger litigation in Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited (CT-2019-005). The [...]

On October 31, 2022, the Competition Tribunal issued its long-awaited - and indeed nearly forgotten - decision in Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited. In 2019, Parrish [...]

In a budget implementation bill passed into law on June 23, 2022, the Canadian government made significant changes to Canada's Competition Act1 (Act). Perhaps the most extensive and consequential amendments [...]

Why this decision matters In Difederico v Amazon.com, the Federal Court of Canada upheld the competence-competence principle, reinforced the binding nature of contracts of adhesion, and confirmed that an arbitration [...]

Byline: VASS BEDNAR, DENISE HEARN Vass Bednar is the executive director of McMaster University's master of public policy in digital society program and an adjunct professor of political science. Denise [...]

The Competition Bureau hosted the Competition and Green Growth Summit on September 20, which explored the intersection between competition law and policy and sustainability. This full-day event featured an opening [...]

As a result of the June 23, 2022 amendments (the 'Amendments') to the Canadian Competition Act (the 'Act'), drip pricing is now expressly recognized as a deceptive marketing practice and [...]

In a recent decision, the Federal Court enforced an arbitration clause and stayed a portion of a proposed class action against Amazon related to price fixing1. This decision complements a [...]

Recent amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (Ontario) and the Competition Act (Canada) may be sounding the death knell for certain restricted covenants in Ontario-both non-competition covenants given by [...]

The Federal Court of Appeal ('FCA') decision in Mohr v. Hockey Canada ('Mohr')1 has confirmed an important limitation on the scope of the conspiracy offence in the Competition Act, but [...]

Bottom Line On June 23, 2022, the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, S.C. 2022, c. 10 ('Bill C-19'), received Royal Assent. Among other changes to various federal statutes, Bill [...]

The recent dismissal of a class action against Ford confirms the utility of summary judgment motions in class actions, particularly when the evidence advanced to support the plaintiffs' claims was [...]

On June 23, 2022, significant amendments were made to the Competition Act (the 'Act'). Our previous blog post discusses these amendments in detail. Among other things, the proposed amendments added [...]

Significant amendments to Canada's Competition Act (the 'Act') are now law. The amendments can be broken down into five categories: (i) abuse of dominance, (ii) criminal cartel and competitor collaborations, [...]

Prohibitions against wage-fixing and no-poach agreements will come into force in June 2023. To help employers prepare, Rebecca Wagner and Eric Patenaude of our Competition and Foreign Investment Review group [...]

On August 17, 2022, Canada's Federal Court of Appeal agreed with a growing consensus of lower courts that section 45 of the Competition Act does not apply to 'buy-side' conspiracies, [...]

Welcome to the September issue of Blakes Competitive Edge, a monthly publication of the Blakes Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group. Blakes Competitive Edge provides an overview of recent developments [...]

On September 8, the Competition Bureau hosted a public information session about the 2022 amendments to the Competition Act. The session included guidance on the Bureau's approach to enforcing new [...]

Every MLM business knows that selling products through third-parties such as Amazon or eBay should never be allowed... but is this actually the case? What if MLM companies did sell [...]

On August 17, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a decision to strike a proposed class action alleging a conspiracy amongst the major North American hockey leagues to limit the [...]

On August 17, 2022, the Federal Court of Appeal (the 'FCA') dismissed the appeal by Kobe Mohr in Mohr v. National Hockey League. In summary, the FCA found that the [...]

There has been significant and growing debate in recent times about the adequacy of Canadian competition laws. A package of amendments was passed in June 2022, and it is widely [...]