Competition Law
Pioneer Corp v Godfrey: SCC Gives Umbrella Purchasers an Umbrella from Indeterminate Liability
When it comes to class action plaintiffs, the Supreme Court giveth and the Supreme Court taketh away. The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or “Court”) did their taking last April, in Telus Communications Inc v Wellman, 2019 SCC 19 [Wellman], when they ruled that business customers with arbitration clauses in their contracts are ineligible to […]
Pioneer v Godfrey : SCC to Decide if Damages Should Rain Down on “Umbrella” Purchasers
If you are not familiar with the term “umbrella purchasers,” you may very well be forgiven. In everyday conversation the term might simply be used to refer to someone who lives in an abnormally rainy place, or perhaps an individual that has regrettably lost yet another umbrella. In the legal world, however, umbrella purchasers take […]
Vancouver Airport Authority v Commissioner of Competition: “Public Interest” Privilege Comes Crashing Down to Earth
“Privilege” is a common-law doctrine that prevents the compulsory disclosure of documents or information that is against the public interest. As Justice L’Heureux-Dubé explains: The doctrine of privilege acts as an exception to the truth-finding process of our adversarial trial procedure. Although all relevant information is presumptively admissible at trial, some probative and trustworthy evidence […]
The Commissioner of Competition v The Toronto Real Estate Board: The FCA Rules that Home Prices in Toronto Must be Made Public
Serving more than 49,000 real estate brokers in the Greater Toronto Area, the Toronto Real Estate Board (“TREB”) is Canada’s largest real estate board. The majority of real estate transactions in Toronto make use of TREB’s Multiple-Listing Service (“MLS”), an online tool for brokers to help customers buy and sell homes. In particular, the MLS […]
ATCO Gas and Pipelines Ltd v Alberta: Why You Are Paying More on Your Electricity Bill
In December of 2013, a damning Ontario Auditor General report zeroed in on Ontario Power Generator (“OPG”) and its executive compensation packages. The report accused OPG of unnecessarily driving up electricity prices through nepotism, high labour costs, and one of the province’s most generous public-sector pension plans in comparison to the Ontario Public Service as […]
Efficiency Prevails in Merger Review: Tervita Corp v Canada (Commissioner of Competition)
**This comment was co-authored in collaboration with TheCourt.ca's Andreea Andrei. Tervita Corp v Canada (Commissioner of Competition), 2015 SCC 3 [Tervita], represents the first Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) merger jurisprudence in seventeen years (see Canada (Director of Investigation and Research) v Southam Inc, [1997] 1 SCR 748). It also marks the very first time the SCC […]
Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Chatr Wireless Inc.: True Claims, but Inadequate Testing
On February 21, 2014, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released its decision regarding remedies in Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Chatr Wireless Inc., 2014 ONSC 1146 [Chatr]. This case stemmed from allegations by the Commissioner of Competition against Chatr Wireless Inc. (“Chatr Wireless”) in relation to claims made by the telecommunications company about it […]
The European Commission Secures Modest Concessions from Google in Latest Anti-trust Battle
Google, as part of a settlement with European competition regulators, has conceded some ground in the European search market by agreeing to display competitor results in its search results. These concessions will be the most significant that Google has made in response to an antitrust inquiry to date. The proposed settlement still requires approval from […]
Amici Curiae: The Stock Exchange Merger, Tipster Texting, and Blaming Berlusconi Edition
Boehner Weighs in on Birthers Three years after being elected President, rumours that Barack Obama was not born in the United States are still floating about. That seems to be the state of things after House Speaker, Republican John Boehner’s comments over the weekend on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that, although he believes Obama was […]