In 2024, Canada continued to strengthen and reshape its regulatory landscape through transformative amendments to the Competition Act and Investment Canada Act. Designed to provide government agencies with a wider range of tools to address perceived harms to competition and to Canada’s national security interests, the next 12 months will test how the government intends to use its amended toolkit in a practical context. Domestic and international companies doing business in or into Canada need to take note both of the specific changes and associated risks, and the prevailing pro-enforcement climate that underpins the reforms. 

To help businesses and their advisors prepare for the changes and maximize their opportunities, McCarthy Tétrault’s Competition/Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group has released its comprehensive Competition/Antitrust & Foreign Investment Outlook 2025. 

Authored by Canada’s leading competition and foreign investment law advisors and litigators, the publication offers strategic insights and analyses of the recent legislative amendments, and how they are likely to alter Canada’s competition and foreign investment enforcement landscape in 2025 and beyond.

The publication includes the following chapters:

• Investment Canada Act: How Will the Government Use Its New Powers?
• Merger Review: A Change in the Toolkit and a Change in Emphasis?
• Cartels and Anti-Competitive Collaborations: The Bureau Re-Enters the Fray
• A New Chapter for Reviewable Conduct or Just Pages From Another Regulator’s Playbook?
• Deceptive Marketing: Bureau Emboldened by Legislative Reform and Tribunal Victory
• Competition Litigation: Action All Round

 

Read a snapshot from the publication:  

2024 was a watershed year for Canadian competition and foreign investment law reform. After incremental legislative and regulatory changes to the Competition Act and Investment Canada Act in 2022 and 2023, 2024 delivered passage of the most significant amendments to both statutes in more than a decade. Now, in 2025, the rubber is ready to hit the road. As we turn the page from legislative reform to law enforcement, time will tell whether we are entering a new epoch of emboldened enforcement or whether the amendments will reveal themselves to be a Potemkin village. The year ahead will serve as an important marker as the practical implications of the new legislative environment begin to crystallize.

Matthew Boswell, the Commissioner of Competition, has advocated passionately for competition law reform and can claim a number of significant victories. The Competition Act has been amended to provide powerful new enforcement tools (many on the specific recommendation of the Commissioner of Competition), including, to name just a few, the adoption of a per se wage-fixing cartel offence, a structural presumption for mergers, a less demanding test for abuse of dominance and substantial penalties for civil anti-competitive agreements. In order to put these tools to use, the Competition Bureau has been handed a larger budget and the gate has been opened wide for private actions. In the wake of these changes, the Commissioner of Competition has heralded a new era of competition law enforcement. He has promised more enforcement, quicker action and stronger remedies.

Our 2025 Outlook seeks to tackle the uncertainty of Canada’s new competition and foreign investment law enforcement landscapes. As the dust settles after years of frenzied legislative action, we set our sights on whether the objectives of the push for reform are likely to be achieved, and the risks and opportunities these new enforcement paradigms create.

About McCarthy Tétrault’s Competition/Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group

Clients trust McCarthy Tétrault’s national Competition/Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group with their most strategic and critical competition, foreign investment and national security matters, and foreign law firms trust us with their valued clients. Whether as advisors or as litigators, our team has earned a stellar reputation both nationally and internationally and works hard to maintain that reputation with every mandate. We pride ourselves on being practical, business friendly and responsive to clients’ timing and commercial requirements. Find out how we can help grow and defend your business. 

About McCarthy Tétrault

McCarthy Tétrault LLP provides a broad range of legal services, providing strategic and industry-focused advice and solutions for Canadian and international interests. The firm has substantial presence in Canada’s major commercial centres as well as in New York and London.

Built on an integrated approach to the practice of law and delivery of innovative client services, the firm brings its legal talent, industry insight and practice experience to help clients achieve the results that are important to them.

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For further information on McCarthy Tétrault or any of the above, please contact [email protected]