Competition watchdog ramps up scrutiny of digital giants
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

The Competition Bureau, which yesterday issued a call for confidential reports of anti-competitive behaviour in Canada’s digital economy, today said that the initiative may lead to enforcement actions.On Wednesday the bureau issued a “call-out” for businesses and other parties to voluntarily provide information on what companies in the digital economy may be doing to harm competition as part of a ramp up in scrutiny on the practices of digital behemoths.Jean-Philippe Lepage, a spokesperson for the bureau, told the Star Thursday that the call-out is part of a broader focus on emerging issues in Canada’s digital economy “and in fact may lead to new enforcement actions,” although he noted the bureau is required by law to conduct its work confidentially and therefore “cannot confirm whether we have any ongoing investigations in this area.”The request for the business community to provide examples of “strategies that firms may use to hinder competition in certain core digital markets” was unusual and there has been speculation as to what the bureau plans to do with the information. Toronto-based antitrust and advertising lawyer Steve Szentesi said he believed the bureau could be gearing up for new legal action against U.S.-based tech giants and said it is almost certainly sharing information with the federal and state governments in the U.S. that have commenced prosecutions.“It’s got to make some companies nervous,” said Szentesi. Given that the bureau has pursued several recent cases against entities such as Ticketmaster over allegedly misleading online advertising “you can bet the guys on Bay Street are making sure their clients are fully compliant.”The bureau’s initiative follows the appointment of a new commissioner, Matthew Boswell, who is focused on supporting digital competition, the addition of digital antitrust enforcement personnel and increased preventive measur ...