April 21, 2023
On April 17, 2023, Canada’s Competition Bureau (Bureau) published its new Annual Plan (see: 2023-2024 Annual Plan: Driving Competition Forward For All Canadians).
In announcing its new Annual Plan, the Commissioner of Competition said:
“I’m happy to present the Competition Bureau’s Annual Plan for 2023-2024, which comes at a crucial time for Canadians. As we deal with the highest cost-of-living increases seen in a generation, Canadians can plainly see the relationship between a lack of competition and climbing prices. The Bureau’s role is to protect and promote competition, and we take that seriously. We will do everything in our power to foster competition so that Canadians can benefit from lower prices, higher quality, and more choice. Competition is not a cure-all, but it does play an important role in maintaining the affordability of goods and services.”
According to the Bureau, in the coming year it will continue to prioritize three major objectives:
1. Protecting Canadians through enforcement action. With respect to enforcement, the Bureau indicated that it needed to heighten its enforcement efforts based on ongoing inflation in Canada and that it would aim to leverage its Digital Enforcement and Intelligence Branches in particular to commence competition law enforcement in key digital and traditional sectors impacting Canadian consumers.
Over the past several years, the Bureau has received a significantly increased operating budget from the federal government and has since that time been both increasing its internal teams and signalling a desire to increase its litigation in key priority areas.
For more information about Bureau enforcement, see: Competition Bureau Enforcement.
2. Promoting competition in Canada and Competition Act amendments. With respect to the Bureau’s competition advocacy efforts (i.e., in areas where it may not have direct enforcement powers, such as regulated sectors), it indicated that it would continue to focus on the grocery sector, among other sectors, and continue to also advocate for further sweeping amendments to modernize the Competition Act.
For more information, see: Competition Bureau Publishes Sweeping Recommendations for Canadian Competition Law Reform, New Canadian Government Consultation on Fundamental Competition Act Amendments and Canadian Government Announces Sweeping Stage II Review of Federal Competition Law.
3. Investing in the Bureau’s organization. As for the Bureau’s internal structure, it signalled that it wants to continue to strengthen its capabilities across both traditional and digital market related areas, but particularly build its capabilities relating to the digital sector.
In this regard, over the past several years the Bureau has received significantly increased government funding, has been hiring in key areas and has established new monitoring and enforcement branches to reflect its digital economy related enforcement and advocacy priorities.
See, for example: Digital Economy Remains Top Competition Bureau Priority For Next Four Years: New Strategic Vision Report and Digital Marketing Enforcement Is Top Competition Bureau Enforcement Priority: New Remarks.
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