Commissioner paints bright fence around cartel conduct
In the text of a May 4, 2010 speech that was released by the Competition Bureau on June 7, 2010, the Commissioner of Competition, Melanie Aitken, has affirmed the guidance in the Competitor Collaboration Guidelines regarding the care with which she will proceed under the cartel provision (section 45 of the Competition Act). The Commissioner said: “[l]et me be crystal clear: if an agreement among competitors does not constitute a naked agreement to fix prices, allocate markets, or restrict output, that agreement will be subject to – at most, and only – a separate, civil review requiring proof of economic harm.”
The Commissioner also confirmed the written guidance that certain types of agreements will not be the subject of cartel prosecutions: “we have explicitly removed whole categories of agreements from the scope of criminal enforcement action, such as dual distribution agreements, franchise agreements and non–competes, unless, of course, the agreement is just a sham. We are doing our best to put a fence around the conduct we would consider investigating as criminal, and to paint that fence in bright, bold colours.”
These unequivocal statements of the Commissioner will be welcomed by businesses who are considering legitimate collaborative conduct which may raise issues under the new and potentially very broad cartel law. Still, it must be noted that the Commissioner’s guidance is not binding and will not remove the risk of private actions in which cartel conduct is alleged.
The Commissioner also discussed merger review issues and her case against the Canadian Real Estate Association in the May 4, 2010 speech.
