This page describes our general approach when communicating with media about our enforcement work. In our communications, we balance our confidentiality obligations and the importance of informing Canadians about our work.
The decisions about the communications of an enforcement activity will depend on its particular circumstances.
Enforcement activities include actions taken to identify, investigate, prosecute and resolve potential breaches of the laws we enforce. This also includes our merger reviews.
For a list of the types of conduct investigated by the Bureau, please see Issues the Bureau deals with.
For more information on how we ensure compliance with the law, please see our page on Compliance and enforcement.
On this page:
- Our goals when communicating with media
- Our limits when communicating with media
- Communications on general market conduct, practices and mergers
- Communications about our investigations
- Matters before the Competition Tribunal and the courts
- Our merger reviews
- Position statements
- Spokespeople and interviews
- Contact our media relations team
Our goals when communicating with media
We engage with media about our enforcement work for a number of reasons, including to:
- Promote trust in the fairness and integrity of markets,
- Deter anti-competitive and deceptive practices,
- Inform consumers and businesses of the rules and responsibilities under Canadian competition law,
- Enhance the transparency and accountability of our work.
Our limits when communicating with media
There are several considerations that can limit the information we can share with media, including:
- Our confidentiality obligations under the law requiring us to:
- keep details of our investigations confidential;
- treat complaints confidentially and protect the privacy of complainants.
- The confidentiality of commercially sensitive information;
- Risk of prejudicing ongoing investigations;
- Fairness to individuals and businesses under investigation;
- Respect for due process, including court and Competition Tribunal proceedings.
Communications on general market conduct, practices and mergers
In general, we do not comment on general market conduct, practices or mergers. In instances involving a potential breach of the law, we need to look at a number of factors before reaching a conclusion.
We can communicate on market activities when we have data or relevant information that we are able to share. This is often the case when these are relevant to our advocacy work, including the findings of our market studies, reports or submissions. It is also the case when we publish industry warnings, and consumer and business alerts.
Requests for information on our application of the law
We can provide information on how we apply the laws we enforce. This can include how we undertake our investigations, what conduct might be reviewed under competition law, and what guidance we have published for consumers and businesses.
Comments on specific companies or market activities
We must conduct a thorough and complete examination of all the facts in a situation before concluding whether the laws we enforce were broken.
Therefore, it is inappropriate for us to speculate on specific situations or to comment on the activities of specific companies without having assessed all of the elements involved. Also, as we are required by law to conduct our work confidentially, we cannot confirm whether we are or will be investigating a particular matter.
We maintain a report of merger reviews, a searchable list of ongoing and concluded reviews, which is updated on a weekly basis.
Commenting on complaints
We obtain information from a variety of sources, including marketplace observations and complaints we receive from consumers, businesses and other groups.
We are required by law to treat all complaints received confidentially. This allows us to protect the anonymity of those that provide us with information.
We can only confirm having received a complaint when it has been made public in certain circumstances, for example:
- when it is necessary to gather facts and evidence from relevant sources;
- when it is made public through the filing of court documents; or
- when it is made public by a third party, including a complainant.
We provide general information about the number of complaints we receive twice a year in our performance measurement & statistics reports. This includes the total number of complaints and the most common types of complaints we have received. These can be found on our Guidelines and publications page and by filtering for “performance measurement & statistics report”.
Communications about our investigations
We investigate potentially anticompetitive conduct, and deceptive marketing practices, under both criminal and civil provisions of the Competition Act. We also investigate mergers under the civil provisions of the Act, information on which can be found in the “Our merger reviews” section below.
We are required by law to conduct these investigations confidentially. Exceptions to this rule exist when disclosing the investigation is necessary to gather facts and evidence, or when the investigation is made public through the filing of court documents or by a third party.
After we have confirmed an investigation is underway, we will generally be limited in our ability to comment further until it is concluded or legal action is taken.
The status of investigations that have not been made public will remain confidential.
For information on the process we follow for our criminal investigations, please see our page Criminal investigations: Basic process.
Discontinued investigations
When we discontinue an investigation which was made public, we are able to confirm the discontinuance. The information we can provide in these instances varies from one case to another, and depends on a number of factors relating to the confidentiality of our work.
In some cases, we may outline some of our findings and the reasons for discontinuance to promote compliance with the law. When we do so, we still have to maintain the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information.
Matters before the Competition Tribunal and the courts
When we take enforcement action, what we can communicate depends on the nature of the case. This includes whether the case is being investigated under the civil or criminal provisions of the law.
You can consult the lists of the cases and outcomes that have been made public through legal proceedings in recent years here:
- Cases of bid-rigging, price-fixing and other illegal agreements between competitors
- Cases of deceptive marketing practices
- Cases of restrictive trade practices
Start of legal action
We generally publish a news release at the beginning of legal actions. In these cases, we are able to provide information because it has been made public in court documents. We will also seek to assist media in accessing relevant court documents by providing court file numbers or referring them to the appropriate place to find them.
Civil cases
Information gathering: We may seek a court order to require companies or individuals to provide information we need to advance our investigations. These orders are made under section 11 of the Competition Act and, when granted by a court, can compel parties to produce records, written information and oral testimony that are relevant to our investigations.
In cases where these orders and the related court documents are publicly accessible, we will generally publish a news release with information on the orders and the related investigations when they are granted.
Consent agreements: Where appropriate, we try to resolve matters by mutual agreement with the individual or business under investigation, instead of resorting to litigation. Consent agreements enable us to resolve our competition concerns in a timely and efficient manner while ensuring compliance with the law.
When we reach a settlement with a company or individual, we register it with the Competition Tribunal. These agreements have the force of a court order. These documents are available through the Tribunal, and we will generally publish a news release once the agreements are registered.
Litigation: Litigation is used when we cannot resolve a case on a consensual basis, or when a consensual resolution would not be appropriate. The final decision in these cases rests with the Competition Tribunal or the court, which will conclude if the law was breached and decide on the appropriate remedies, including financial penalties.
During litigation, we are limited in our ability to comment on a case outside of the information included in publicly available court documents.
Criminal cases
Information gathering: We can use a range of investigative tools to obtain evidence in an inquiry, including searches, production orders for records, oral examinations and wiretapping.
We can provide information about these actions when they are made public through the filing of court documents.
Laying charges: When we find evidence of wrongdoing during an investigation under the criminal provisions of the law, we refer the matter to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC). The PPSC will determine if charges should be laid and has independent authority on all decisions related to the prosecution of a case.
We will generally publish a news release when the PPSC decides to take legal actions in a case, including information about our findings. We will also communicate at different stages of criminal cases, including when charges are laid, when there are guilty pleas and court decisions.
During court proceedings
Our decision to communicate information about a case is assessed on a case-by-case basis, including considering any potential risk of compromising the integrity of investigations or of cases before the courts. The PPSC may also decide to communicate information about cases and the legal proceedings.
End of legal proceedings
We generally publish a news release on the completion of legal proceedings. Once a matter is no longer before the courts, we have a greater ability to comment on the details of our investigations, findings and court decisions. The information we are able to share will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Our merger reviews
Effective merger control is vital because it’s the first line of defense in our efforts to protect competition.
Mergers of all sizes and in all sectors of the economy are subject to our review. We continuously monitor transactions across all marketplaces affecting the Canadian economy. We must also be notified of mergers that exceed certain financial thresholds. More information on how we conduct our reviews, and their potential outcomes, can be found at our Overview of the merger review process.
We maintain a report of merger reviews, a searchable list of ongoing and concluded merger reviews, which is updated on a weekly basis.
We will generally publish a news release in cases where we reach an agreement with the parties to preserve competition, or in cases where we challenge a merger before the Competition Tribunal.
Merger reviews in the banking and transportation sectors
Other government departments may also commence reviews into proposed transactions in the banking and transportation sectors that involve significant public interest considerations. As a result, these transactions may not follow the usual process for our merger reviews.
The Bank Act and the Canada Transportation Act each contain provisions that allow the Minister of Finance or Minister of Transport to review and authorize mergers that are in the public interest.
In these cases, we review the transactions as usual to determine if they are likely to harm competition. We may be required to report our findings to a Minister. When we are, we generally publish a news release and a report, which includes our findings.
These reports and assessments are published to our Guidelines and publications page.
Position statements
We will publicly communicate the results of certain investigations, inquiries and merger reviews with a position statement. In the case of complex merger reviews, position statements briefly describe our analysis of a proposed transaction and summarize its main findings. These can be found on our Position statements page.
Spokespeople and interviews
Official Bureau spokespeople include the Commissioner of Competition, senior Bureau officials, designated subject matter experts, as well as the Bureau’s media relations team.
We endeavour to make spokespeople available to media for interviews when appropriate. We require information on the subject, format and duration of the interview, as well as information on its intended publication, before confirming a spokesperson’s participation.
Generally speaking, we will seek to make spokespersons available for interview in order to:
- Increase awareness of the Competition Act.
- Provide information about how we conduct our work.
- Warn Canadians about competition issues or deceptive marketing practices.
- Prevent businesses from adopting harmful or illegal practices.
- Communicate, where possible and appropriate, on our enforcement activities.
We will generally be unable to provide a spokesperson for interview in cases where the interview concerns:
- Details about a specific investigation or complaint.
- Details about a specific company or individual.
Contact our media relations team
Members of the media can contact our media relations team Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time at media-cb-bc@cb-bc.gc.ca.
You can consult our past news releases here. To receive our news release in real time, subscribe to our mailing list. We also publish updates regularly to our social media platforms.
For general public inquiries, please contact the Bureau’s Information Centre.