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The Government of Canada has announced the 2024 financial thresholds for pre-merger notification and clearance under the Competition Act, and for pre-closing, “net benefit” review and approval under the Investment Canada Act (“ICA”). While the Competition Act “size of transaction” financial threshold remains the same, the ICA financial thresholds have increased. Significantly, this is the third year in a row that the Competition Act financial threshold has remained unchanged at CAD 93 million in a bid to maintain the number of transactions subject to review by the Commissioner of Competition.

On 1 December 2023, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed a Sherman Act conviction of a former executive of an aluminum products manufacturer for failure to state a per se antitrust offense. In February 2022, the former executive was found guilty of six counts: conspiracy to rig bids, conspiracy to commit mail or wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, and one count of wire fraud. The court affirmed the mail and wire fraud convictions, but reversed the Sherman Act conviction of conspiracy to rig bids. The Fourth Circuit held that the trial court erred in applying the per se rule without considering the fact that the alleged scheme took place within the context of a “dual distribution” relationship among competing bidders, who also maintained a supplier relationship.

Investigations are an essential tool for ensuring a company’s ethical standards are being followed by employees, business partners, and any others with whom the company interacts. However, investigations are also an essential tool for demonstrating and maintaining strong corporate governance – an integral part of a company’s ESG commitments and strategy. It is also a good time to set yourself some goals and resolutions. To help you on your way, we are pleased to share our top 5 Lunar New Year Resolutions for handling Internal or Government Investigations

Long-awaited reforms to the Canadian Competition Act (“Act”) have arrived and represent the most comprehensive amendments to the Act in over a decade. Recent and proposed amendments to the abuse of dominance provisions are likely to have a significant impact on how businesses operating in Canada assess and manage risk.

Although often viewed as one of the most open economies in Europe, the broader European policy push for more foreign direct investment (FDI) screening has also given momentum to the Dutch legislature to design and implement the very first Dutch cross-sector FDI screening regime. On 1 June 2023, the Act on Security Screening of Investments, Mergers, and Acquisitions (“Vifo Act”) entered into force.

With effect from 1 January 2024, the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) of the Czech Republic issued a new notice on compliance programs specifying how ÚOHS will consider internal competition compliance rules as a mitigating circumstance when imposing fines. Since 2022, ÚOHS has recognized the enhancement of an existing compliance program, or the introduction of a new program, as a mitigating circumstance when imposing fines, subject to certain conditions. Building on the experience gained, the new ÚOHS notice outlines the conditions that businesses must meet for a compliance program to be considered effective and by how much the imposed fines can be reduced.

Modernization of Canadian competition law and foreign investment review is well underway. Recent and further proposed legislative amendments will impact how dealmakers assess substantial and procedural regulatory risk for mergers. This update summarizes the recent legislative amendments to the Competition Act (Act) that came into effect on 15 December 2023 and proposed legislative amendments to the Act and Investment Canada Act. Dealmakers should be aware of these amendments as they plan mergers involving Canadian businesses in 2024.