Competition, Antitrust and Foreign Investment

Cartels and Investigations

“Their legal professionals were intelligent and responsive. They clearly explained the issues and the risks to us. They proposed insightful and dependable solutions. We found the firm’s professionals to be very capable, extremely dedicated, and a real pleasure to work with.”
Client – Chambers Canada 2021

If your company is caught up in a cartel probe – from dawn raids to fending off follow-on class actions – you want a skilled legal team with the experience to see you through from start to finish. Our team delivers. Industry leaders faced with some of the most significant and complex cartel cases in Canada have benefited from our experts’ agility, track record and insights into the workings of the Competition Bureau.

Criminal investigations and prosecutions are intense and demanding, often involving cross-border cooperation between national competition authorities. If you’re served with search warrants or must respond to compulsory written interrogatories and document production orders, we move quickly to provide the advice and support you need.

We’ve forged long-standing relationships with the Competition Bureau and the Director of Public Prosecutions. We leverage that knowledge and experience to negotiate immunity or leniency, including for those initially targeted for prosecution. In every dimension of these complex challenges, we know what you’re up against and take the issues as seriously as you do.

Representative Work

Canadian Chamber of Commerce, 2019

Acted for The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, an intervener, in appeals heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2018 arising from class action proceedings alleging a global, criminal price-fixing cartel in respect of optical disc drives, which resolves the standard for class certification in indirect purchaser cases, and settled long standing issues concerning the applicability of limitation periods to the cause of action under s. 36 of the Competition Act and whether "umbrella purchasers" have a cause of action.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, 2019

Acted for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, an intervener, in appeals decided by the Supreme Court of Canada on September 20, 2019, arising from class action proceedings alleging a global, criminal price-fixing cartel in respect of optical disc drives, which clarified the standard for class certification in competition class actions, and settled long-standing issues concerning the applicability of limitation periods to the cause of action under s. 36 of the Competition Act and whether "umbrella purchasers" have a cause of action.