Bill C-441
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1st Session, 39th Parliament,
55-56 Elizabeth II, 2006-2007
house of commons of canada
BILL C-441
An Act to amend the Competition Act (protection of purchasers from vertically integrated suppliers)
R.S., c. C-34; R.S., c. 19 (2nd Supp.), s. 19
Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:
1. The Competition Act is amended by adding the following after section 50:
Definitions
50.1 (1) The following definitions apply in this section.
“affiliate”
« personne affiliée »
« personne affiliée »
“affiliate” has the meaning given to that word in subsection 77(5).
“market area”
« zone de marché »
« zone de marché »
“market area” means a geographic area in which a seller customarily sells a product at retail or offers it for sale at retail.
Fair price to competing retailer
(2) Every vertically integrated supplier who manufactures and sells a product at retail, either directly or through an affiliate, and also sells the product or a similar product to a purchaser who is not an affiliate but who is in the business of selling the product at retail, and who charges the purchaser a price that exceeds
(a) in the case of a direct sale, the supplier's own retail price in the same market area as that in which the purchaser customarily sells the product or offers it for sale, less
(i) the supplier's own cost of marketing at retail, and
(ii) the supplier's reasonable return on the retail sale, or
(b) in the case of a sale through an affiliate, the price charged to the affiliate,
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars for every day on which the offence is committed and, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars for every day on which the offence is committed or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years, or to both fine and imprisonment.
No lower return for supplier
(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2), a vertically integrated supplier is not required to sell a product to a purchaser referred to in that subsection at a price that results in the supplier receiving a lower return on the retail sale of the product, when sold by the supplier or its affiliate, than the purchaser's return on the retail sale of the same product in the same market area.
2. Subsection 78(1) of the Act is amended by striking out the word “and” at the end of paragraph (j), by adding the word “and” at the end of paragraph (k) and by adding the following after paragraph (k):
(l) the coercion or attempted coercion, by a vertically integrated supplier, of a customer who competes with the supplier at the retail level in the same market area, in relation to the establishment of the customer's retail price or pricing policy.
Published under authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons
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