Empowering Private Attorneys General Under Bill C-59: Disequilibrium Persists in Canadian Competition Law

Abstract

This article considers whether the amendments to the Competition Act introduced by Bill C-59 go far enough to allow access to justice for everyday consumers who incur real losses because of anti-competitive conduct. Through a corrective justice lens, the authors conduct this analysis on the premise that when the law fails to make compensatory damages available to a class of persons who suffered loss because of unlawful anti-competitive conduct, then there is disequilibrium in law. From this perspective, the authors conclude that the amendments of Bill C-59 fail to provide practical access to repair financial losses and do not go far enough to empower or incentivize the “private attorneys general” to enforce Canada’s competition laws through private class action litigation.