The Davies Forecast of Top 5 Trends and Issues for Canadian Competition Law in 2020

By Mark Katz, Jim Dinning & Anita Banicevic, (Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP)

Here is Davies’ annual forecast of Canadian competition law developments for the year ahead.

1. FOCUS ON THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

Given the Competition Bureau’s stated priorities during the tenure of current Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell, we expect the digital economy to remain an area of focus for the Bureau in 2020. As Commissioner Boswell has stated, “explosive growth means that digital is more important to our economy than many of the more traditional sectors.”

The Competition Bureau took a number of steps in 2019 to position itself for a more active enforcement stance in the digital space in 2020. For one, it appointed a new Chief Digital Enforcement Officer to help focus its enforcement efforts. The Bureau also issued a “call-out” to invite market participants to let it know about potentially anticompetitive conduct in the digital economy. The consultation period for this call-out ended in November 2019, and we are now waiting to see whether it will actually lead to enforcement action…

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