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CCCA_V7No4_CompetitionLaw-FIN_CCCA 13-11-25 12:58 PM Page 36 Feature CCCA: What should the Bureau do to promote compliance? bent upon the commissioner to promote competition outside of Pecman: My view is that we spend a lot of time on enforcing the these formal settings as well. And the Bureau had moved away law as opposed to preventing anti-competitive conduct from from that in the past few years. When we re-entered this field a taking place in the first instance. […] We should invest more year ago we discussed the priority areas internally and decided time at the Bureau on preventing anti-competitive behaviour the three priorities would be the digital economy, health and the and so we’re going to have a working group [to] seek input from retail sector. I’m looking at growing that side of our business. business, the legal community on how we can work with them to prevent bid-rigging, price-fixing, and anti-competitive con- CCCA: There were three major losses in court for the Bureau this duct in the marketplace. year: the misleading advertising case against Chatr Wireless, abuse of dominance complaint against the Toronto Real Estate CCCA: Tell us about recent revisions to the Bureau’s leniency Board, and the price maintenance case against Visa and program. MasterCard. How will these shape enforcement in the future? Pecman: There were a couple of housekeeping matters but Pecman: Decisions to go to litigation are made on a case-by-case the bottom line is to improve the management of information basis. My preference is for there to be a co-operative resolution that comes to us. Once a company puts up their hand to co- as opposed to going to the courts to resolve issues. It’s unfortu- operate we’re expecting full and timely co-operation as nate and we’re disappointed by some of the decisions. One is opposed to co-operation on their timetable. I think that’s the under appeal regarding the real estate board and with regard to essence of the changes. the credit cards decisions. Again we’re still trying to resolve that competition issue outside of the court process. So in my mind the CCCA: What role should the Bureau play with respect to advocacy? fact whether you win or lose isn’t the point. The point is that we Pecman: Under The Competition Act the commissioner is per- have some new legislation, we’re trying to test the law and the mitted to make interventions before regulatory bodies to advo- only way to do that is to go to court. It’s not all about winning. cate for open markets in competition. In terms of advocacy itself and opining on broader types of regulatory overviews and over- CCCA: What do you see as some of the emerging IP issues? MIKE PINDER sights and the need for regulation in industries I think it’s incum- Pecman: We have some very antiquated provisions in our law 36 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association WINTER 2013