Canada: Adopted Amendments to Canada's Competition Act including anti-competitive agreements regulation

On 23 June 2022, amendments to the Canadian Competition Act as part of Bill C-19 were adopted by the Canadian Senate. Regarding the regulation of anti-competitive agreements, the amendments introduce an expanded (non-exhaustive) list of factors to establish the impact on competition by anti-competitive agreements. In particular, the assessment now can include the consideration of network effects as a barrier to market entry, possible entrenchments of the incumbent, as well as the consideration of the impact on non-price competition, such as quality, choice or consumer privacy. The amendments further remove the CAD 25 million limit on fines for agreements that contain price-fixing, supply restriction or market allocation. Instead, the fine amounts now will be at the court's discretion.