Industry committee  Let me start by saying again, greater co-operation is always welcomed, but we also have to work within our statutory mandate. Under section 29 we have a statutory obligation to maintain confidential certain information and we cannot divulge that unless we are within those two req

Industry committee  I think that could help.

Industry committee  The three agencies, though, have three different responsibilities. They do overlap, but we each have our different mandates and I think those are clearly delineated within the MOU. So it could be a bit of a challenge, I think, to try to amalgamate the two. We have a statutory dut

Industry committee  We do not have a carve-out for charities; we apply the law as it is. In fact, recently we had an alternative case resolution in a matter of charity bins, where they seemed to suggest they were helping charities and they actually were not. Our law doesn't distinguish that. In fact

Industry committee  I think the relationship is very positive. We work well with the other two agencies, the CRTC and the OPC. We know that the SRC, for example, has been a very useful tool for us in terms of a source of information for our own investigations. That's hosted by the CRTC. They have ha

Industry committee  No, not at all. The million-dollar administrative monetary penalty is payable to the Receiver General for Canada and goes into the consolidated revenue fund. It doesn't go to the bureau. The costs that are levied against a company will also not go to the bureau. They will go to t

Industry committee  Drip pricing?

Industry committee  I'll start off and then I'll pass it over to my colleague. We currently have 41 ongoing digital economy investigations. Again, given the nature of the work we do as an independent law enforcement agency, I cannot share the details of those, but we currently have digital economy

Industry committee  As a law enforcement agency, we assess the facts that are brought before us in an investigation. We assess and determine whether or not the law applies, to what extent the law applies, and the appropriate remedies. It's hard to deal in hypotheticals without the facts.

Industry committee  Again, our work is guided by section 29 of the Competition Act, the confidentiality provisions of the act. Any information we receive, whether it's from the targets of an investigation or a business or any sources of information to a third party, we protect that information, whet

Industry committee  It'll be difficult for us to go granular in terms of our sources of information. We're an independent law enforcement agency. We have investigative tools we need to use, and individuals and enterprises that come before us expect that we will vigorously protect the information the

Industry committee  Malware doesn't fall within our mandate, quite frankly. There are areas where the conduct can overlap, but again we would be looking at it within the confines of false or misleading representations in the material aspect as outlined within our Competition Act.

Industry committee  The Competition Act talks about promoting a product or a business interest. The test that we apply is that which is “false or misleading in a material respect”. In terms of “material respect”, has it influenced the consumer to purchase a product or to engage in a particular condu

Industry committee  Let me start by saying that reviewable conduct is civil. An offence that has the element of “knowingly or recklessly” will tip you into the criminal behaviour. The cases you have before you, the Avis and Budget, the Amazon, and the Hertz cases, were all resolved under the civil r

Industry committee  Exactly.