In August 2019, Genworth Financial, Inc. (Genworth) announced that it had agreed to sell its approximate 57% shareholding in Canadian subsidiary Genworth MI Canada Inc. (Genworth Canada) to Canadian headquartered Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (Brookfield) for approximately C$2.4 billion. Genworth Canada, through one of its subsidiaries, is Canada’s largest private-sector residential mortgage insurer. The deal is expected to close before the end of 2019. One of the more interesting aspects of the announced deal is…

On June 17, 2019 the Competition Bureau announced that it is challenging Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of Aucerna, a company that offers valuation and reporting software to Canadian oil and gas producers. The fact that the Competition Bureau is challenging the transaction after it has been completed suggests that the transaction was not subject to pre-merger notification and that the Bureau learned about the transaction only after it closed, or at least too late to seek…

On March 31, 2016, the Competition Bureau (“Bureau”) published the long-awaited update to its Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines (“IPEGs”). According to the Bureau, the aim of the updated IPEGs is threefold. They: Clarify the Bureau’s position on patent litigation settlements and product switching—notably that settlements of proceedings under the Patented Medicines Notice of Compliance Regulations will be analysed under the Competition Act’s criminal conspiracy provisions only where the settlement is a sham or where it…

Increases to the merger notification thresholds under the Competition Act and the investment review threshold under the Investment Canada Act have been announced. Competition Act As published in Part I of the Canada Gazette on February 7, 2015, the pre-merger notification threshold relating to transaction-size for 2015 has increased to $86 million from the 2014 threshold of $82 million. The Competition Bureau must generally be given advance notice of proposed transactions when the assets in Canada or…

On December 9, 2014, Bill C-49, the Price Transparency Act, received first reading in the House of Commons. It proposes to amend the Competition Act in two respects.  First, it proposes price transparency measures, pursuant to which the Commissioner of Competition is (i) authorized to conduct inquiries to determine why a product or class of product has a higher selling price in Canada than in the United States; and (ii) required to report on his…

On July 3, 2014, the Commissioner of Competition announced that changes to the Competition Bureau’s Corporate Compliance Programs Bulletin are planned.  The Bulletin was last amended in 2010 to address the 2009 and 2010 amendments to the Competition Act. Areas under consideration for updating include: the appropriate role of a company’s chief compliance officer; considering use of risk-based tools to illustrate competition risks; increasing incentives to reward credible and effective programs; ensuring programs include the…

Generally higher Canadian (compared to U.S.) retail prices have from time to time been a concern for Canadian consumers. This concern appeared to become more acute over the course of the last decade as the Canadian dollar moved more or less to parity with the U.S. dollar (although more recently the Canadian dollar has dipped to an almost 10% discount to the US greenback) without, it appeared, corresponding changes in retail prices. Canadian retailers have…