Competition Issues January 2009

Canadian Competition Law: Destination Unknown
The Lawyers Weekly, January 30, 2009

The credit crunch and associated economic downturn have created new challenges for governments and regulatory authorities around the world. Issues to be addressed include what role, if any, should be played by competition law and policy in dealing with the current crisis, and what impact there will be on levels of enforcement. Will the Canadian Competition Bureau handle its duties going forward in the usual fashion, particularly in the area of merger review, or will it relax its enforcement standards in order to accommodate broader economic concerns not strictly related to competition law principles? <<More>>

Varney to Lead Antitrust Division
Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2009

The Obama administration is assembling a new antitrust-enforcement team that is expected to impose stiffer merger-review standards and file more cases against companies that use market dominance to raise prices than was done under the Bush administration. The White House on Thursday nominated Christine Varney, a former Federal Trade Commission member and Internet-law expert, as Justice Department antitrust chief. Varney, 53 years old, has been a partner at the Hogan & Hartson law firm in Washington since 1997. She served most recently as personal counsel to Barack Obama's transition team. <<More>>

Canada Releases Guidelines on Abuse of Dominance
Osler Update, January 20, 2009

On January 16, 2009 the Competition Bureau released its long-awaited draft Enforcement Guidelines on The Abuse of Dominance Provisions (Sections 78 and 79 of the Competition Act) for public comment. While these Guidelines do not reflect any major changes to the Bureau’s existing enforcement policy, they provide helpful guidance to the legal and business communities on what constitutes a “legitimate business justification" for a practice. <<More>>

China Issues New Merger Guidelines
Mondaq, January 12, 2009

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce's Anti-Monopoly Bureau (AMB) has issued a series of guidelines on the merger review framework and process, including guidelines on the information required by the AMB about transactions that must be notified to the AMB in accordance with the compulsory pre-merger notification regime under the PRC Anti-Monopoly Law (AML).<<More>>

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