Thank you for the question.
I'd like to start by saying that a company's nationality really has no bearing on our work. What's important to us is really the competition.
When a transaction or merger is proposed, the first thing to check usually is whether the financial thresholds are exceeded. I touched on this earlier. If the financial thresholds are exceeded, companies must give notice to the Competition Bureau. On the one hand, this gives us the information we need to conduct a review to make sure there are no competition problems. On the other hand, it gives us some time to review the facts before the parties can close the transaction.
That said, the bureau can review transactions even if they don't exceed the financial thresholds, and this is to ensure that there are no competition issues. We have a team that obtains information from the market so that we are aware of any mergers that may be problematic. In addition, we often receive complaints from third parties, whether consumers or suppliers, notifying us of a transaction they feel is problematic. In such cases, we review the facts and determine whether we wish to initiate a review of the transaction.
Transaction review involves interviews and document review. Occasionally, we hire experts as needed. Once this process is complete, in order to act, we need to determine whether there is an impediment to competition or a marked lessening of it. This is what constitutes the threshold.