May 1, 2014
Earlier today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) posted a new post on their “Competition Matters” blog on competition law and associations entitled: Antitrust by Association(s). In its new post, the FTC discusses the historic application of the antitrust laws to associations, some early antitrust and association case law, some key antitrust and association related topics (e.g., anti-competitive codes of ethics) and some of the recent U.S. enforcement in the area (music teachers and legal support professionals association cases).
As in the U.S., Canada has had a great many trade and professional association related competition law cases for more than a century, since Canada’s first competition laws were enacted. To this day, it remains important for trade and professional associations to have a common-sense and basic understanding of competition laws and to adopt credible and effective competition compliance programs.
The Canadian Competition Bureau has also recently, over the past several years or so, begun to take a renewed and heightened interest in associations. Some recent developments include its enforcement against several major Canadian associations (in the telecom and real estate sectors), inclusion of trade association compliance topics in a number of recent Commissioner speeches and the recent issuance of a new Bureau pamphlet on association compliance (see: Trade Associations and the Competition Act).
For more about Canadian competition law and associations see: Association Compliance.
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