Canadian COMPETITION LAW

SWEEPING CANADIAN COMPETITION ACT
AMENDMENTS (BILL C-59) PASSED JUNE 20, 2024

On June 20, 2024, Bill C-59 was passed (the Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023), which introduced the third of three significant rounds of amendments to Canada’s federal Competition Act in two years (together with Bill C-19 and Bill C-56). This new round of amendments to the Competition Act completes a sweeping overhaul of the Competition Act across virtually all key provisions of Canada’s competition legislation. These amendments are also the most significant changes to Canadian competition law since the modern Competition Act came into effect in 1986 replacing the former Combines Investigation Act.

The Bill C-59 amendments, among other things, strengthen the Competition Bureau’s powers to enforce key deceptive marketing provisions of the Competition Act (e.g., relating to drip pricing, performance claims and ordinary selling price (OSP) claims), strengthen private party rights to seek Competition Tribunal remedies (e.g., for civil deceptive marketing and violations of the civil agreements provisions of the Act), introduce new penalties (e.g., administrative monetary penalties for violating the civil agreements provisions of the Act and for reprisal actions penalizing individuals for complying with the Act) and introduce a new clearance regime for environmental protection related agreements. Canada’s Competition Act merger review regime was also substantially overhauled, eliminating the efficiency defence, introducing market share presumptions and a more restrictive remedial test for restoring competition.

These amendments, together with those enacted in June 2022 and December 2023 (Bill C-19 and Bill C-56), increase the potential competition law risk for companies, trade and professional associations and other entities, particularly those without credible and effective competition law compliance programs and that have not reviewed their business practices to reflect Canada’s new competition laws. For the Competition Bureau’s summary of the June 20, 2024 Bill C-59 amendments to the Competition Act, see: Guide to the June 2024 amendments to the Competition Act (June 25, 2024).

Our blogs will be updated to reflect these amendments.

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Trade and professional associations can and commonly do serve many legitimate purposes, including promoting common industry interests to the public, lobbying and advocacy, research, member education and the promotion and improvement of product standards.

However, because trade and professional association activities commonly involve the interaction of direct competitors, they can also in some cases raise competition law concerns under Canada’s federal Competition Act.

COMPETITION, ADVERTISING AND COMPLIANCE LAW
SERVICES FOR TRADE/PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

We offer Canadian competition law, advertising law, CASL (Canadian anti-spam law) and competition law compliance services for trade and professional associations and other not-for-profit organizations including in relation to board and association meetings, association rules and by-laws, codes of ethics and conduct, standard setting exercises, member surveys and benchmarking, government lobbying and advocacy, membership criteria and discipline, joint purchasing, member information exchanges (e.g., at meetings or via social media platforms) and dealing with marketplace and competitor issues.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

Some representative examples of our trade and professional association law related work includes competition law compliance programs and policies for associations in many sectors, compliance talks and seminars for association members and boards, competition compliance audits, opinions and legal advice, vetting and attending trade association meetings and board meetings, filing and defending against Competition Bureau complaints and investigations, drafting conduct of meeting, search and seizure and information exchange guidelines, guidelines for member surveys and benchmarking, a national competition law compliance course for organized real estate (Competition Law and REALTORS: What You Say and Do Matters), Steve Szentesi as subject matter expert for a national online competition law compliance course for Canadian REALTORS, co-author of The Competition Law Guide for Trade Associations in Canada (Carswell book) and subject matter expert and author for the advertising law section of the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College’s course Ethics in Clinical Practice and Advertising. 

Steve Szentesi is also former in-house competition law counsel for The Canadian Real Estate Association in Ottawa, one of Canada’s largest trade associations.

For more information about our firm, visit our website: Competitionlawyer.ca.