Annual Report of the Commissioner of Competition for the year ending March 31, 1999

Table of Contents

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Statistical Data

Bureau Operations
Selected Activities of the Competition Bureau
Civil Matters - Selected Activities
Criminal Matters - Selected Activities
Merger Examinations
Misleading advertising and deceptive marketing practices offences - Selected Activities

Bureau Operations

In 1998-1999, the operating budget for the Bureau was $25.3 million including carryforward. In addition, $4 million in supplementary estimates was provided for the review of bank mergers. The Bureau also received $6.9 million in fees. A major portion of the budget, $20 million was allocated to salaries for 382 full time staff, consisting of 22 executives, 13 economists, 145 commerce officers, 98 program officers, and 104 employees carrying out informatics, administrative services and support functions. The Bureau has administrative responsibility for collecting fines imposed by the courts. During 1998-1999, $42,018,013 in fines was imposed and $41,046,033 was collected during the year and credited to the government's Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Table 1

Selected Activities of the Competition Bureau

	1995-1996	1996-1997	1997-1998	1998-1999
Number of complaints, examinations, inquiries and advisory opinions
Total complaints/information requests	1,424	2,040	6,939	10,009
Examinations (two or more days of review)	83	77	870	601
Applications for inquiries under section 9	6	10	11	11
Inquiries in progress at year end	37	45	40	48
Written advisory opinions	240	170	235	75
Disposition of inquiries
Inquiries formally discontinued	29	9	29	21
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	4	0	8	8
Matters referred where further action is not warranted	1	0	2	0
Prosecutions or other proceedings commenced	4	1	6	8
Applications to the Competition Tribunal	4	3	8	5
-Mergers	1	3	4	5
-Other reviewable practices	3	0	4	0
Representatives before regulatory bodies	10	11	14	15

Table 2

Civil Matters — Selected Activities

	1995-1996	1996-1997	1997-1998	1998-1999
Number of complaints, examinations and inquiries
Total complaints/information contacts	456	561	503	819
Examinations commenced (two or more days of review)	28	31	41	29
Applications for inquiries under section 9 (six resident application to the Director for inquiry)	4	2	3	4
Inquiries in progress at year end	13	16	5	8
Written advisory opinions	4	1	0	0
Disposition of inquiries
Inquiries resolved by alternative case resolution	3	4	4	3
Applications to the Competition Tribunal	1	0	4	0
Discontinuances			11	6
Interventions
CRTC			9	8
Provincial			3	5
CITT			2	1
Policy work			2	1

Table 3

Criminal Matters — Selected Activities

	1995-1996	1996-1997	1997-1998	1998-1999
Number of complaints, examinations and inquiries
Total complaints/information requests	968	1,479	1,285	937
Examinations commenced	55	46	39	49
Application for inquiries under section 9	2	8	4	7
Inquiries in progress at year end	24	29	20	26
Disposition of inquiries
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	4	0	3	7
Matters where charges were laid	4	1	3	6
Matters where Attorney General declined to proceed or withdrew charges (may include matters referred during previous years)	1	0	1	0
Matters before the Courts (may include matters referred during previous years)	14	10	8	6
Disposition of prosecutions (findings of guilt, guilty pleas, acquittals, stay of proceedings, orders of prohibition - may include maters referred during previous years)	8	22	48	16
Other activities
Examinations resolved by information contacts	16	32	13	11
Written advisory opinions	14	14	12	8
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) requests	3	1	0	0
Searches	4	0	1	5

Table 4

Merger Examinations

	1995-1996	1996-1997	1997-1998	1998-1999
Examinations commenced (two or more days of review; includes notifiable transactions, advance ruling certificates and examinations commenced for other reasons; some examinations commenced may arise from notifications and advance ruling certificate requests in relation to the same transactions)	228	319	393	360
Notifiable transactions	100	140	195	192
Advance ruling certificates requests	142	224	284	222
Examinations concluded
As posing no issue under the Act	204	296	398	337
With monitoring only	4	2	2	0
With pre-closing restructuring	0	1	0	0
With post-closing restructuring/undertakings	0	0	3	0
With consent orders	0	1	0	2
Through contested proceedings	0	0	0	2
Parties abandoned proposed mergers in whole or in part as a result of Director's position	3	0	0	1
Total examinations concluded (includes advance ruling certificates and advisory opinions issued and matters which have been concluded or withdrawn before the Competition Tribunal)	215	306	403	351
-advance ruling certificates issued (included in "Total examinations concluded")	121	188	236	192
-advisory opinions issued (included in "Total examinations concluded")	10	2	4	6
Examinations ongoing at year end	52	65	55	50
Total examinations during the year	267	371	458	401
Applications and Notices of Application before the Tribunal
Concluded or withdrawn	1	1	2	4
Ongoing	2	2	2	1

Table 5

(Competition Bureau regional offices were closed during the 1995-96 fiscal year and all marketing practices activities consolidated at headquarters. Many figures will therefore show a considerable difference from previous years.)

Misleading advertising and deceptive marketing practices offences — selected activities

	1995-1996	1996-1997	1997-1998	1998-1999
Number of complaints, examinations and inquiries
Total complaints received	6,752	6,277	5,148	8,253
Applications for inquiries under section 9	5	2	4	0
Inquiries commenced	8	18	9	4
Disposition of inquiries
Completed examinations/inquired	278	383	397	163
Information contacts (includes only written contacts)	86	246	208	137
Inquiries formally discontinued
-cases involving undertakings (discontinued inquiries involving undertakings are reported for the fiscal year in which they were discontinued; accordingly, these may not coincide with the actual number of undertakings received in any given fiscal year)	9	8	2	3
-other cases	10	17	7	4
Undertakings received	4	4	2	3
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	7	3	5	1
Matters where further action is not warranted (may include matters referred during previous years)	3	0	1	0
Prosecutions commenced (may include matters referred during previous years)	7	4	3	2
Prohibition orders without conviction	1	0	0	1
Prosecutions concluded (may include matters referred during previous years)
-convictions	14	8	7	5
-non-convictions (includes conditional and absolute discharges, withdrawals, stays of proceedings, etc. It should be noted that charges against some of the accused are often withdrawn after other accused in the same case have pleaded guilty. Accordingly, there is some overlap.)	4	2	0	0
Total Fines	$879,850	$241,500	$573,300	$1,402,500