Revised rules for Canada's Competition Tribunal
Canada's Competition Tribunal hears and disposes of all matters under the "deceptive marketing practices" and "reviewable matters" provisions of Canada's Competition Act, most notably applications by the Commissioner of Competition to challenge mergers, abuse of dominance, anti-competitive distribution practices and misleading advertising, and private applications related to refusal to deal and anti-competitive distribution or pricing practices.
On May 26, 2007, revised rules of practice for Canada's Competition Tribunal were published for a sixty-day consultation period. The stated objectives of the (extensive) revisions to the rules were to integrate existing Tribunal practice directions, establish a comprehensive case management procedure, adopt a single procedure for all applications to the Tribunal, reinstate the relevance standard for documentary discovery, establish procedures to make the hearings more efficient, and provide a more logical structure for the rules. The Tribunal's revision to its rules was undertaken in cooperation with a committee comprised of Tribunal members and staff, representatives of the Competition Bureau, Justice Canada and the National Competition Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association. Extensive consultations within and among each of these groups of Committee members were undertaken over several drafts of the revised rules. The final draft of the revised rules were presented to, and revised by, the judicial members of the Tribunal.
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