Canada: Competition Bureau releases updated abuse of dominance guidelines

On Thursday, March 7, the Canadian Competition Bureau (CCB) released its updated Abuse of Dominance Enforcement Guidelines.

The guidelines provide an overview of the CCB’s approach to enforcing the abuse of dominance provisions of the Canadian Competition Act.

In March 2018, the CCB released a draft copy of the guidelines for public consultation. The CCB reviewed comments carefully before finalizing the updated guidelines.

The revised guidelines include various updates to the previous guidelines, such as:

• Enhanced guidance on how the CCB assesses certain types of anti-competitive conduct;

• the CCB’s approach to assessing non-price effects on competition, dynamic competition, and innovation;

• how the CCB considers potential remedies; and

• examples that illustrate how CCB analysis may be conducted.

The updated guidelines replace the previous guidelines dealing with these provisions. The CCB previously published its abuse of dominance guidelines on September 20, 2012.