February 18, 2011

Although 2010 lacked the drama of the previous year (which, among other things, witnessed major changes to Canada's competition legislation), as we discuss in this bulletin, there were a number of highly significant developments during 2010, particularly on the enforcement front. Below you will find discussions of enforcement and policy developments during the year, including the successful negotiation by the Commissioner of Competition ("Commissioner"), Melanie Aitken, of large fines in a number of international price fixing cartels, and the initiation of two major cases before the Competition Tribunal under the abuse of dominance and price maintenance provisions of the Competition Act. These developments were followed early in 2011 by the Commissioner's challenge of the merger between CCS Corporation and Complete Environmental Inc. This latter development is notable on a number of accounts including the fact that the Commissioner is seeking, among other things, dissolution of the transaction: sellers beware! And, of course, under the Investment Canada Act we saw the now famous disallowance of BHP Billiton's ("BHP") proposed acquisition of Potash Corp.