Find Lawyers in Canada for Competition / Antitrust Law
Practice Area Overview
Broadly speaking, the purpose of Canadian competition law is to provide consumers with competitive prices and product choices. The Competition Act is Canada's principal competition legislation. It is a federal statute that applies throughout the country to all sectors of the economy, with very limited exceptions. The Competition Act is administered by the Competition Bureau, a branch of the federal Department of Industry. The Competition Act contains criminal prohibitions against certain types of activities while other categories of conduct are subject to civil review at the Competition Tribunal or before the courts. Sanctions range from fines to imprisonment to orders prohibiting or prescribing certain conduct.
Competition lawyers in Canada typically provide advice to clients in the following key areas:
- Merger Transactions: The Competition Act requires that transactions over a certain size be notified to the Competition Bureau. The Bureau has the authority to review both notifiable and non-notifiable transactions to determine if they are likely to substantially prevent or lessen competition. Clients will retain competition counsel to advise on these issues. Competition counsel also will provide advice on transaction-related matters such as deal structure and purchase agreement provisions.
- Agreements Among Competitors: The Competition Act makes it a criminal offence for competitors to enter into certain types of agreements (e.g., price fixing and bid-rigging). Other agreements may be subject to civil review if their effect is to substantially prevent or lessen competition. Counsel will be called upon by clients to assess whether proposed collaborations with competitors could be subject to criminal or civil review under these provisions.
- Abuse of Dominance: Parties that "control" a market are prohibited from abusing their "dominance" in such as way as to substantially prevent or lessen competition. Parties that may hold a "dominant" position in a market will retain counsel to advise whether practices such as exclusive arrangements and loyalty rebates could be an issue.
In addition to these principal substantive areas, competition lawyers will become involved on behalf of their clients in a variety of other matters covered by the Competition Act, including designing pricing and distribution programs; dealing with distributor terminations; and setting up advertising campaigns, contests, and other types of promotions. Counsel also will assist clients in related matters such as establishing compliance programs; dealing with Bureau investigations; and litigation (public and private).
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Anthony (Tony) Baldanza’s business law practice is focused on competition law, foreign investment law and corporate/commercial matters. In his competition law practice, Tony provides advice and representation in relation to mergers and in relation to cartels, abuse of dominance and other restrictive trade practices. Working across a wide range of industries, Tony assists clients in clearing transactions through the Canadian Competition Bureau and, with local counsel, through the competi...
Paul Collins is senior counsel and the former Head of the Competition & Foreign Investment Group in the Toronto office. He practises corporate and commercial law, specializing in the area of competition law, providing both transactional and general compliance advice, as well as advice regarding marketing and advertising law. Paul is also a leading advisor for foreign investors in connection with the Investment Canada Act. His practice puts him in constant contact with the federal Competit...
Laura Cooper is Leader of Fasken’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Class Actions practice group. She has extensive experience in class action litigation, with particular emphasis on securities, competition, consumer and privacy class actions. Laura acts regularly for internationally known corporations in the defence of significant class actions. Many of her cases have cross-border and international implications and Laura works closely wi...
Tony is a Partner and Co-Leader of the firm’s Competition, Marketing and Foreign Investment Group. As former counsel to Canada’s Commissioner of Competition (Department of Justice Canada) and having served as counsel in many of Canada’s most significant competition matters, Tony is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading practitioners in competition law and litigation. Tony represents and counsels clients in domestic and multi-jurisdictional competition matters, i...
Huy Do is the Co-Leader of the firm’s Competition, Marketing & Foreign Investment group. His practice focuses on anti-trust/competition, marketing and foreign investment law. Huy is a widely recognized leader in Canadian competition, marketing and foreign investment laws. He is a Past Chair and member of the Executive of the Competition Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association and serves as a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network, a network of antitrus...
Lawson Hunter is one of Canada’s renowned regulatory and government relations counsel, drawing on a wide range of experience in business, government and private practice. Most recently, Lawson was awarded the Order of Canada for his distinguished career in government, business and private practice as one of the country's leading competition and antitrust lawyers. In 2017, he was awarded the Order of Ottawa for his significant contributions to the City of Ottawa. In 2016, he was the reci...
Susan Hutton is a senior partner in the Competition & Foreign Investment Group. She provides Competition Act and Investment Canada Act advice in respect of numerous complex mergers and acquisitions. She provides clients with ongoing compliance advice and has guided clients through civil and criminal investigations, as well as complaints under the Competition Act. Susan is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global and Chambers Canada, which quotes sources as saying she "is superbly...
Katherine Kay is a partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Competition & Foreign Investment Groups. She has served on the Partnership Board and Executive Committee, as well as the Management Committee in the Toronto office. Katherine leads the competition litigation group and her practice is concentrated on complex commercial litigation, often involving the interplay between regulatory, civil and criminal law regimes, and across multiple jurisdictions. Chambers Global has d...
Michael Kilby is a partner and Head of the Competition & Foreign Investment Group. He is a leading advisor on matters relating to Canadian competition and foreign investment laws, and has wide-ranging experience in complex merger reviews, foreign investment approvals, national security reviews, pricing and distribution practices, misleading advertising, anti-corruption and related counselling matters across a broad spectrum of industries. Michael has been involved in some of the most impo...
Eliot Kolers is the Head of the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group and a member of the Management Committee and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee in the Toronto office. Eliot is recognized by his peers as a leading litigator with vast expertise in the areas of corporate commercial litigation, class actions, securities litigation and competition litigation matters. He has represented clients in numerous complex and high-profile commercial cases involving oppression remedies, p...
Mike Laskey is a partner in the Competition & Foreign Investment Group. His practice focuses on the review of transactions under the Competition Act and the Investment Canada Act. Under the Competition Act, Mike regularly advises clients on the competition law risks of complex and high-profile transactions. Mike leads competition law reviews of some of the most involved transactions in Canada. Mike works with the Competition Bureau to resolve difficult and novel competition issues and neg...
Chris Margison has over 20 years of private and public sector legal experience, including as Special Advisor to both the Commissioner of Competition and the Senior Deputy Commissioner, Cartels Directorate at the Competition Bureau. With his background, Chris brings a number of attributes, such as the ability to provide critical advice, guidance and recommendations in a timely fashion on all aspects of Canadian competition law. He has advised the Commissioner, Senior Deputy Commissioners and h...
Paul Martin is co-chair of the firm’s Class Actions practice group. With extensive experience in commercial, administrative and quasi-criminal litigation, Paul assists clients predominantly in the areas of class actions and complex cross-border litigation. His defence and trial practice primarily involves product liability, shareholder rights, employment, financial institutions, insurance, securities regulation, competition, pensions and benefits, consumer protection, and intellectual p...
Leslie has recently returned to her communications, competition and administrative law practice at Fasken from an in-house counsel position at a leading global satellite services provider. Leslie provides complex legal and strategic advice to Canadian and foreign wireline, wireless and satellite telecommunications service providers on all aspects of telecommunications and radiocommunications regulation in Canada. She acts for these clients in a broad range of proceedings before the Canadian R...
Rujuta Patel practises business law and competition law, with a focus on the resources and transportation sectors. She advises on private mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations and restructurings of multinational and Canadian organizations, private placements and a variety of energy-related matters. She works regularly with energy services companies and is experienced in drafting, negotiating and advising on a broad range of services, drilling and engineering contracts. She also ...
Danielle Royal is a partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group and a member of the Management Committee in the Toronto office. Her practice focuses on class actions, complex commercial litigation and competition litigation. Danielle has appeared before all levels of Court in Ontario, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. She has represented clients on several cross-border class actions involving claims of price-fixing and conspiracy, other commercial dispu...
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