Canada, Competition

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

Three key themes will shape Canadian competition and foreign investment law in 2015. Specifically, we see developments in these areas unfolding in a regulatory environment in which administration and enforcement is increasingly: • consumer-facing: The Competition Bureau’s focus on enforcement in consumer-facing industries will continue into 2015, with policy emphases and recent or open dossiers…

Canada, Pricing

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /1 Comment

The Canadian government is determined to remedy what it (and many Canadians) regard as an unjustified gap between US and Canadian prices for the same goods. In particular, the government has focussed on what it perceives to be unjustified “country pricing” or “cross-border price discrimination”, ie, businesses charging more for goods sold in Canada than…

Intellectual property (IP), Spain

(RBB Economics)/ /2 Comments

On 11 December 2014 Google announced that it would be closing down Google News in Spain.  The decision came after the introduction of new copyright legislation supported by the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies (AEDE) that forces all Spanish news publishers to charge aggregators like Google News for showing short extracts of text from…

Canada, Consumer welfare

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /1 Comment

One of the functions that trade and professional associations often perform is to help “regulate” the business conduct of their members, often through the vehicle of “codes of ethics”. When properly applied, “self-regulation” of this type can protect consumers, reduce regulatory burdens for industry members, and enhance an industry’s reputation with government bodies and the…

Europe

(Sidley Austin LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Last week, the Council gave itself another shot at improving the functioning of the General Court of the European Union (the ‘General Court’). And once again, it failed. Following an already disappointing episode in March 2014,[1]Note on a missed opportunity for the administration of justice across Europe. the Council again placed the equality between member…

Competition, United Kingdom

(St Johns Chambers, United Kingdom)/ /Leave a comment

The High Court has recently provided guidance on the application of limitation periods in competition damages actions. In Arcadia v Visa, it ruled that a substantial part of the claimant’s claim, which dated back to 1977, should be struck out for having been brought too late, so reducing the claimed damages by around £500 million….

Antitrust, Cartels, Competition, Dominance, Enforcement, Investigations, Mergers, United Kingdom

(St Johns Chambers, United Kingdom)/ /Leave a comment

The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has recently published its draft Annual Plan for 2015/2016, its second year of operation after assuming the functions of the Competition Commission and the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) on 1 April 2014. Together with a Strategic Assessment of the risks that consumers and markets…

Australia, Competition

(K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

Co-authored by Ayman Guirguis (Partner), Jackie Mortensen (Senior Associate), Asa Lam (Lawyer) & Jessica Qiu (Lawyer).   On 22 September 2014 the much anticipated Draft Report of the ‘root and branch’ review of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (Act) (Harper Review) was released. The proposed recommendations of the Harper Review panel (Panel) are…

Canada, Mergers

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

General overview of the key merger control regimes in Canada Competition Act Canada’s Competition Act (the Act) authorises the Commissioner of Competition (the Commissioner) to challenge merger transactions that are likely to prevent or lessen competition substantially in a relevant market affecting Canada. The Commissioner heads the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) which is responsible for…

Canada, Enforcement

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

Canada’s Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) has maintained its focus on trade and professional associations in 2014. This has involved not only various forms of prosecutions and proceedings but also initiatives in a growing part of the Bureau’s enforcement agenda: advocacy and compliance. A summary of 2014’s key developments is set out below. 1. The TREB…