Lexpert Magazine quotes Toronto lawyer Sean Stevens in an article on major reforms to the Canadian competition law.
The amendments repealed the efficiencies defence for mergers. Sean Stevens, co-leader of the capital markets and M&A group at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, says this defence was a unique aspect of Canadian antitrust law. It meant that a transaction that would otherwise be anticompetitive could be permitted if its participants could demonstrate that it would enhance economic efficiency and provide a net benefit to the economy.
“Now that specific criteria have been removed, it doesn’t mean that won’t be considered in the overall evaluation. But we’ve lost that as a defence.” Stevens adds that the defence was seldom successful, being a decisive factor in only a handful of cases in the last 15 years.
