On March 12, 2009, the most significant amendments to Canada's competition and foreign investment regimes in more than 20 years were enacted when Bill C-10, the Budget Implementation Act, 2009, received Royal Assent. The amendments were described in detail in the February 20, 2009 edition of The Competitor.

With the exception of the new hybrid/"dual-track" conspiracy provisions, all of the Competition Act amendments enter into force immediately. These include

  • a new U.S.-style "two-stage" merger regime;
  • an increase in the "size-of-transaction" threshold for pre-merger notification;
  • de-criminalization of predatory pricing, price discrimination and promotional allowances;
  • conversion of resale price maintenance from a per se criminal offence to a civilly reviewable practice;
  • substantial increases in the penalties for deceptive marketing practices and misleading advertising; and
  • introduction of substantial administrative monetary penalties for abuse of dominance.

A delayed one-year implementation date applies to the new "dual-track" conspiracy provisions, which create a per se criminal offence for agreements between competitors to fix prices, allocate sales, customers or markets, or fix or control production or supply of a product, and subject other types of agreements between competitors to civil review if they prevent or lessen competition substantially.

All of the Investment Canada Act amendments are also now in force (indeed, most changes are retroactive to February 6, 2009), with the exception of increased thresholds for review of direct investments by WTO investors, which will come into force on a day fixed by order of the Governor in Council (the federal Cabinet). Provision is also made for Cabinet to prescribe regulations in respect of certain of the amendments. The Competition Bureau and the Investment Review Division of Industry Canada have yet to issue guidelines specifying how the new provisions will be enforced.

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