Alleged Violation of the Obstruction Provision of the Competition Act by Mycom Canada Ltd. and a Former Employee

Backgrounder

December 09, 1999

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Background

The obstruction inquiry under section 64 of Competition Act (the Act) was commenced on October 31, 1996. It stems from a previous civil inquiry begun on March 14, 1995, when Mycom Canada Ltd. (Mycom) agreed to voluntarily provide the Bureau with a written return of information under oath and also provide records. Upon examining the information provided by Mycom and the declaration of its former Vice President of Sales, it was concluded that the return was incomplete and misleading. In subsequent discussions with Mycom during the course of the obstruction inquiry, the company agreed to fully cooperate with the Bureau and certain conditions were set for satisfying the Bureau's concerns. The obstruction inquiry was eventually discontinued by alternative case resolution. Furthermore, during this time, Mycom altered its sales policy which resulted in alleviating the Bureau's concerns in the civil inquiry regarding the exclusive dealing and abuse provisions.

The Alternative Case Resolution

As part of an alternative case resolution being satisfactory to the Competition Bureau respecting the obstruction matter, Mycom has written a letter of apology to the Bureau with regard to the insufficiency of its return of information and has remedied the alleged non-compliance to the Bureau's satisfaction. Mycom has unequivocally agreed to cooperate with the Bureau should there be any future inquiries under the Act. Mycom employees have taken a course on compliance with the Act. Furthermore, Mycom employees have been advised that it is company policy to require staff to comply with the Act and that disciplinary action will be taken for failure to comply with the policy. In addition, during the period of the obstruction inquiry, Mycom altered its sales policy which had been the focus of the civil inquiry under the exclusive dealing and abuse provisions. The result was that the former sales policy was replaced with a new and significantly modified policy.

Conclusions

The Competition Bureau takes seriously voluntary agreements on the part of companies to provide the Bureau with requested information and will take whatever action is thought necessary to ensure that the investigative process is not compromised.