La nouvelle législation anti-cartel The New Combines Law

Sommaire

Dans cet article, après avoir fait une brève revue de l'ancienne législation anti-coalition, l'auteur étudie les répercussions et les effets sur la concurrence des prix et la liberté de choix du consommateur, des amendements apportés à cette loi par le gouvernement canadien.

Summary

The amendments brought to the Combines Act by the Third Session of the 24th Parliament are as follow: first, the bill C-58 consolidates all the anti-trust legislation under one act only which means that it removes from the criminal code the articles which were concerned with unfairetrade practices and integrates then in the Combines Act. Second, the new law provides for an alternative way of controlling the restrictive trade practices: the injonction. The prosecution leading to conviction by a provincial court used to be the sole remedy against the combines, but now it would be possible to issue an order of dissolution against trade associations. This provision is mainly concerned with the merger cases. Third, the new bill autorises the Department of Justice to bring certain combine cases before the Exchequer Court of Canada instead of a trial Court. The reason for this amendment is that the federal government wants to build up a body of judicial experts who will deal with the more complicated cases of merger or combines. Four, the law specifically autorises the enterprises to exchange information and statistics on the state of their business and permits them to cooperate in research and development. This means that in a prosecution under the Combines Act, the court shall not convict the accused if the agreement relates only to these matters. Five, the law obliges any productor or distributor of a merchandise to offer the same discount or allowances to all its customers. Thus, this amendment forbides any trade discrimination.