Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell issued the following statement today regarding the Competition Bureau’s enforcement during the COVID-19 coronavirus situation:
“As Canada responds to the COVID-19 coronavirus situation, I would like to assure Canadians that the Competition Bureau remains vigilant against potentially harmful anti-competitive conduct by those who may seek to take advantage of consumers and businesses during these extraordinary circumstances.
The Bureau will scrutinize any evidence that companies or individuals have violated Canada’s competition laws, including:
- Deceptive marketing practices, such as false or misleading claims about a product’s ability to prevent, treat or cure the virus; and
- Collusion by competing businesses, such as illegal agreements about what price to charge for products or services.
We encourage anyone with information about potential collusion, false or misleading advertising or other forms of deceptive marketing to contact the Bureau. We will do everything in our power to crack down on these and any other anti-competitive activities in order to protect Canadians.
