The CBA Competition Law and Foreign Investment Review Section’s FIR Committee presents:
Hand it Over: Disgorgement Remedies in the Canadian Competition Landscape
February 10, 2025 | 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Eastern
Online (Zoom)
While not defined as such in the Competition Act, disgorgement is a legal remedy which aims to deprive wrongdoers of their ill-gotten gains and has the practical effect of transferring the benefit derived from the wrongful act (generally, profits) to those injured by the conduct. The passage of Bill C-59 will make it easier for private applicants to obtain leave from the Competition Tribunal (“Tribunal“) to bring a private action for abuse of dominance and create a disgorgement remedy. For the first time, private applicants may also obtain a financial remedy for abuse of dominance. Specifically, a private applicant could seek disgorgement of the value of the benefit derived from the anti-competitive conduct, which would be distributed among the private applicant and any other person affected by the conduct. This private disgorgement right is separate from the class action regime for alleged criminal conduct under the Act or the failure to comply with a Tribunal or court order and lacks that regime’s procedural protections.
The panel will compare the two regimes in light of this remedy and will discuss (1) the substantive legal test/burden, (2) practical implications of forum, (3) difference in proving damages, and (4) practical implications for companies in Canada.
This panel is co-hosted by the Competition Litigation Committee and the Young Lawyers Committee of the Competition Law and Foreign Investment Review Section of the Canadian Bar Association
Moderator
Hannah Johnson, McMillan LLP and 2nd Vice-Chair of the Competition Litigation Committee
Speakers
Nicole Henderson, Blakes LLP
Linda Visser, Siskinds LLP
Prem Lobo, Cohen Hamilton Steger & Co
