Competition Bureau's Reviewable Practice Branch participated in its first annual roundtable with members of the bar. The Branch wanted to provide information on its current initiatives and anticipated developments.

The Branch enforces the reviewable practices provisions of the Competition Act, the principal aspects of which being the new decriminalized price maintenance provision, the abuse of dominance provisions, the new civil provision dealing with agreements between competitors, the refusal to deal provision, and as well the provisions with respect to tied selling, exclusive dealing and market restriction.

The Branch, like the Competition Bureau as a whole, is primarily a law enforcement agency, and therefore its actions tend to be driven by external events and complaints brought to its attention. In that regard, it receives approximately 900 annual complaints which result, on average, in approximately 15 serious investigations per year. In addition to complaints, the Branch works to understand relevant developments and to proactively look for issues which may be of particular importance to ensuring a competitive economy. In that regard the Branch has particular interest in issues related to pharmaceuticals and in the digital economy more broadly.

Within the pharmaceutical area, two issues in particular which have taken the Branch's attention are pay for delay (which is particularly timely given developments out of the U.S. Supreme Court), and product switching/product copying. These are both areas of ongoing effort and investigation. In particular, as has been publicly disclosed in court proceedings, the Bureau now has an ongoing investigation into product switching related to Alcon's Panatol and Pantaday products. The Branch also anticipates hosting a roundtable workshop on pharmaceutical issues in the Fall of 2013, the details of which will become available in the coming months.

By way of its work product, other than enforcement actions, the Branch is working on a series of Frequently Asked Questions to supplement its 2012, slimmed down, Abuse of Dominance

Enforcement Guidelines. It is also working on Guidelines outlining its approach to the new decriminalized price maintenance provisions, which were the basis of its proceeding in the Competition Tribunal challenge to the no surcharge and honour all cards rules of Visa and MasterCard. Both the FAQs and the Guidelines will be released in draft, for comment by interested persons.

Originally published by Monopoly Matter, Volume 11, No. 1 Fall 2013

The foregoing provides only an overview. Readers are cautioned against making any decisions based on this material alone. Rather, a qualified lawyer should be consulted.

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