The Competitor : Canada Competition / Antitrust Blog by Stikeman Elliott Lawyers & Attorneys

The Competition Bureau announced today that it has reached an agreement with Danaher Corporation to resolve its concerns with respect to Danaher's acquisition of MDS Inc.'s Analytical Technologies business. Danaher has also signed a consent decree with the United States Federal Trade Commission, which the Bureau determined was sufficient to adequately resolve competition concerns in Canada.

Pursuant to the U.S. decree, Danaher agreed to a divestiture of MDS's Arcturus brand of laser microdissection (LMD) instruments, reagents and consumables to Life Technologies Corporation. The divestiture package includes all relevant Canadian intellectual property rights relating to Arcturus LMD instruments in Canada.

• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Email This
• Print
• Share Link

Michael Kilby

The Investment Canada Act threshold for review of direct acquisitions of control by WTO investors in non-cultural industries has now been officially lowered to C$299 million for transactions closing in 2010. Draft amendments to the Investment Canada Act regulations that would change the C$299 million (book value of assets) threshold to C$600 million (enterprise value) have yet to be issued in final form, as the government continues to consider comments on the draft.

• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Email This
• Print
• Share Link

Susan M. Hutton and Ashley M. Weber

Amendments to the Notifiable Transactions Regulations made under the Competition Act (the Regulations) came into force on February 2, 2010. These amendments reflect the legislative amendments to the Competition Act passed in March, 2009. The highlights include the creation of a uniform notification form for all transactions, changes to the prescribed information that must be supplied to the Commissioner, and stipulations as to how certain asset and revenue values are to be calculated for amalgamations.
 

• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Email This
• Print
• Share Link

Susan M. Hutton

The one-year delay before Canada's new, tougher, cartel law comes into force expires this month. Starting March 12, 2010, prohibited agreements between competitors will be criminally illegal in Canada, regardless of their impact on competition. The amendments result in the creation of a new category of "per se" criminal offences (so-called because the outlawed categories of agreement are "per se" illegal without proof of economic effect). Penalties under the new offence will also increase: from the former maximum five years imprisonment and/or C$10 million fine, to a maximum of 14 years and/or C$25 million.

• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Email This
• Print
• Share Link

Shawn C.D. Neylan

On February 12, 2010, Canada's Commissioner of Competition announced that she would not agree to changes to a fourteen-year old Competition Tribunal order which, among other things, prohibits the Interac Association from operating on a for-profit basis. Interac is the organization that develops and operates a national payment network allowing Canadians to access their money through automated banking machines and point-of-sale terminals. Surprisingly, the Commissioner appears to favour a dated and cumbersome regulated structure over evolution to a market-based entity. The press release issued by the Commissioner did not explain the analysis that lies behind her decision and raises a number of questions as to why she would not support a move by a regulated entity towards a more market-based structure.
 

• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Email This
• Print
• Share Link