Regulatory Matters

Highlights: Recently, interim Commissioner of Competition John Pecman provided several insights into the direction of competition law enforcement under his leadership.  Mr. Pecman emphasized his intention to incrementally increase the Bureau’s “strategic and targeted regulatory interventions” in Canada’s regulated sectors in order to advocate for the promotion of competition. To address the challenges faced by … Continued

Highlights:  The Competition Amendment Bill, 2012 (‘Bill’) has been introduced in the lower house of the Indian Parliament and if passed, will bring significant changes to Indian competition law. Most significant is the introduction of the concept of ‘joint dominance’ under Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002, providing for an enabling provision which will … Continued

Highlights: The Australian government is planning to introduce a foreign ownership register for agricultural land to provide the community with better information about foreign agricultural landholdings. The government has also published guidance as to factors that it will consider when assessing foreign investment applications involving Australian agriculture. Main Article: Background Foreign investment in the Australian … Continued

Highlights: Mr. Vasani argues that competition regulators around the globe should re-examine the  pre-merger clearance process currently being practiced.  He argues that competition regulators worldwide need to have solid empirical evidence to suggest that the existing review process really ensures healthy market competition and even if it does, whether it yields results to the consumers … Continued

Executive Summary: In our annual review of the topics shaping governance today, we consider the ideas that will trend in boardrooms across Canada for months and years ahead.  The dominant theme is the shareholder.  Directors need look no farther than the events of 2012 to convince them that shareholders have the power to seize the … Continued

Highlights: The Ministry of Commerce of the PRC promulgated a new regulation allowing foreign investors to use equity held in a PRC company to invest in the capital of other PRC companies. Main Article: On September 21, 2012, the Ministry ofCommerce of the PRC (“MOFCOM”) released the Interim Measures for the Administration of Capital Contribution … Continued

Highlights: Revised guidelines for investments by foreign state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that are subject to a net benefit review under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) were contemporaneously announced with the approval of investments by CNOOC Limited, a Chinese SOE, to acquire Nexen Inc., and by Petronas, a Malaysian SOE, to acquire Progress Energy Resources Corp. The … Continued

Highlights: Recently, the Canadian federal government has been particularly solicitous of foreign investment involving state-owned enterprises (SOEs), so it was a surprise when the governmental rejected, for the first time, a proposal by an SOE in the oil and gas sector. The process for such approval is not transparent, but it would be prudent to … Continued

Highlights: This paper attempts to explain the tendency of foreign acquirers to choose better performing firms in emerging markets, which limits underperforming firms’ access to foreign capital. Using a simple law and finance model, the authors offer an explanation based on emerging countries’ weaker investor protection compared to acquirers’ home countries, predicting a positive relation … Continued

Highlights:  China’s two governmental regulators for anti-monopoly conducts in China announced that they will increase the transparency of their enforcement actions under the Anti-Monopoly Laws. One head of SAIC discussed its future goals: (1) to investigate those typical antitrust cases having serious impact on market competition; (2) to investigate monopoly conducts of public utility enterprises … Continued