On Wednesday, February 7, 2024 Bay of Quinte MP Ryan Williams voted in favour of Bill C-352 “Lowering Prices for Canadians Act” on its 2nd reading and referral to the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, which passed, 178 to 149.
All but 3 Liberals voted against, while all Conservative MPs and the NDP voted for:
There was reportedly an error on the House of Commons website, which had previously reported that the Liberal and Conservative votes were split:
What is Bill C-352?
Bill C-352 “Lowering Prices for Canadians Act” is a bill in the House of Commons of Canada introduced by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh which would update Canada’s Competition Act to increase penalties on companies for certain anti-competitive acts.
The update would add:
- Higher penalties for price-fixing and wage-fixing of up to 3x the value of the benefit derived from the conspiracy or if that amount cannot be reasonably determined, 10% of the persons annual worldwide gross revenues. This could have led to higher penalties in the case of the bread price-fixing scandal.
- Excessive and unfair selling prices to the list of anti-competitive acts.
- Making “efficiency gains” one of a number of factors considered by the Competition Tribunal when determining if a merger or agreement can be approved, instead of a single legal reason preventing a merger/agreement from being blocked by the Tribunal. This could stop mergers that drive-up prices and hurt consumers, such as the Rogers-Shaw merger.
- Preventing mergers resulting in large market shares if the combined market share of 60% or more, and preventing mergers if the combined market share would be 30% to 60%, unless it is “likely to result in substantial procompetitive outcomes, including reductions in prices, increases in supply, reductions of anti-competitive acts, increases in quality of goods or services, increases in wages and increases in consumer choice and consumer protection.”
- Extended the review period for mergers from 1 to 3 years.
- Increases Competition Bureau power to conduct inquiries into companies when a market study and reports on market conditions would provide insight into factors that are relevant to competition, not just when the Competition Bureau believes a company has broken the law.
- Considering how a merger would affect the real value of exports, and substitution of domestic products for imported products when considering gains in efficiency.
- Other changes
Watch the parliamentary debate about this bill.
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