Nikiforos (Niki) Iatrou is a partner in McCarthy Tetrault Competition/Antitrust and Foreign Investment Group in Toronto. He has been ranked in Lexpert’s Special Editions of Canada’s Leading Litigation Lawyers since 2017 and has been described by a former Commissioner of Competition as "someone with terrific common sense, very good intuition, and wisdom beyond his years" (Precedent Magazine, 2014). In addition to his general corporate/commercial litigation experience, Niki is regarded by Chambers and other leading directories as one of Canada’s top competition litigators (Band 2).
Clients like Facebook, PayPal, eBay, Airbnb, and Rakuten Kobo have turned to Niki when facing serious competition concerns, including where competition law intersects with other areas of regulatory law, like privacy and advertising. He focuses on high-stakes, contentious competition issues, including mergers, criminal cartels, abuses of dominance, deceptive marketing claims, and competition class actions. He is adept at helping clients navigate complex regulatory investigations, and advocating before courts and administrative agencies on their behalf.
Recent examples of his work include acting for Facebook in relation to the Commissioner of Competition’s investigation into privacy matters related to Cambridge Analytica. He acted for Rakuten Kobo in Canada’s eBooks case, where Niki successfully obtained the first-ever injunction against the Commissioner and the first-ever order of the Competition Tribunal rescinding the Commissioner’s consent agreement with various eBook publishers. Niki’s creative approach to litigating competition law saw him obtain leave of the Tribunal to bring a private action against music publishing companies, one of the few instances of the Tribunal allowing a private party, rather than the Commissioner of Competition, to bring a private application before it. In class actions, Niki has recently acted and is currently acting on class actions regarding generic pharmaceuticals, fresh salmon, computer components and hard drives, auto parts, and sub-sovereign bonds.
