Annual Report 1995/96 - Statistical Data

Table 1 - Information and Compliance Data

Misleading Advertising and Deceptive Marketing			Other Sections of the Act		Total
	1994-95	1995-96	1994-95	1995-96	1994-95	1995-96
Information Requests (public)	25,087	32,681	1,379	1,290	26,466	33,971
Oral Advisory Opinions	605*	42	100	60	705	102
Written Advisory Opinions	380*	222	39	18	419*	240
Media Contacts	129*	50	188	222	317	272
Speeches, Seminars and Consultive Meetings	50	22	33	58	83	80

*Estimates required due to lack of full data availability in a system changeover

Table 2 - Selected Activities of the Competition Bureau

(Excluding Misleading Advertising and Deceptive Marketing Practices)

	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
Number of Complaints, Examinations and Inquiries
Total complaints	1,023	1,197	1,282	1,658	1,424
Examinations (two or more days of review)1	114	168	772	74	83
Applications for inquiries under section 91	6	6	11	7	6
Inquiries in progress at year end1	54	47	50	41	37
Disposition of Matters
Inquiries formally discontinued	0	8	28	16	29
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	7	5	6	7	4
Matters referred where further action is not warranted 3	0	2	2	0	1
Prosecutions or other proceedings commenced	5	6	8*	3	4
Applications to the Competition Tribunal	0	1	1	5	4
-Mergers	0	1	0	2	1
-Other Reviewable Practices	0	0	1	3	3
Representations before regulatory bodies	6	7	7	11	10

*Revised figure.

1. Refers to civil and criminal matters only. See comparable statistics for the Merger and Marketing Practices Branches.

2. Examinations in 1992-93 and years prior were defined by 2 or more days of review. In 1993-94, only criminal matters which warranted further review based on case screening criteria adopted by the Criminal Affairs Branch were recorded as examinations.

3. May include matters referred during previous years.

Table 3 - Civil Matters - Selected Activities

1993-94		1994-95	1995-96
Number of Complaints, Examinations and Inquiries
Total complaints/information contacts	507	331	456
Examinations commenced (two or more days of review)	21	21	28
Application for inquiries under section 91	2	5	4
Inquiries in progress at year end	8	10	13
Written Advisory Opinions	2	0	4
Disposition of Inquiries
Inquiries resolved by Alternative Case Resolution	2	2	3
Applications to the Competition Tribunal	1	3	1

1. Refers to six-resident application to the Director for inquiry.

Table 4 - Criminal Matters - Selected Activities

1993-94		1994-95	1995-96
Number of Complaints, Examinations and Inquiries
Total complaints/information requests	775	1048	968
Examinations commenced 1	56	53	55
Application for inquiries under section 92	9	2	2
Inquiries in progress at year end	42	31	24
Disposition of Inquiries
Matters resolved by Alternative Case Resolution 3	1	0	3
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	6	7	4
Matters where charges were laid	8	3	4
Matters where Attorney General declined to proceed or withdrew charges 4	2	0	1
Matters before the courts 4	12	16	14
Disposition of prosecutions (findings of guilt, guilty pleas, acquittals, stay of proceedings, orders of prohibition) 4	7	16	8
Other Activities
Examinations resolved by information contacts	14	23	16
Written Advisory Opinions	30	28	14
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) Requests	2	2	3
Searches	4	5	4

1. Examinations in 1992-93 and years prior were defined by 2 or more days of review. In 1993-94 and 1994-95, only matters which warranted further review based on case screening criteria adopted by the Branch were recorded as examinations.

2. Refers to six-resident application to the Director for inquiry.

3. Alternative Case Resolutions include; investigative visits, orders on consent and written undertakings.

4. May include matters referred during previous years.

Table 5 - Merger Examinations

	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
Examinations commenced 1
(2 or more days of review)	204	192	193	228
Notifiable transactions	62	65	74	100
Advance ruling certificate requests	125	124	139	142
Examinations Concluded
As posing no issue under the Act	198	185	183	204
With monitoring only	4	1	2	4
With pre-closing restructuring	0	0	0	0
with post-closing restructuring/undertakings	0	0	0	0
With consent orders	0	0	0	0
Through contested proceedings	2	0	1	0
Parties abandoned proposed mergers in whole or in part as a result of Director's position	3	2	3	3
Total examinations concluded 2	207	188	189	215
215 Advance ruling certificates issued 3	101	114	106	121
Advisory opinions issued 3	27	10	11	10
Examinations ongoing at year end	31	35	39	52
Total examinations during the year	238	223	228	267
Applications and Notices of Application before Tribunal
Concluded or withdrawn	2	0	1	1
Ongoing	1	2	1	2

1. Includes notifiable transactions, advance ruling certificate requests and examinations commenced for other reasons. Some examinations commenced may arise from notifications and advance ruling certificate requests in relation to the same transactions.

2. Includes advance ruling certificates and advisory opinions issued and matters which have been concluded or withdrawn before the Competition Tribunal.

3. Included in "Total examinations concluded" Table 6

Misleading Advertising and Deceptive Marketing Practices Offences: Selected Activities¹

	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
Number of complaints, examinations and inquiries
Total complaints received	15,130	13,6572	11,0002	8,5002	6,751
Number of files opened	14,557	11,0952	10,500	8,1452	0
Applications for inquiries under section 9	4	0	5	2	5
Inquiries commenced	82	41	46	38	8
Disposition of Inquiries
Completed examinations/inquiries	407	196	399	349	278
Information contacts	1,511	1,174	6543	7623	86
Inquiries formally discontinued Cases involving undertakings4 Other cases	2 1	3 10	38 3	10 16	9 10
Undertakings received	24	20	5	4	4
Matters referred to the Attorney General of Canada	55	16	36	23	7
Matters where further action is not warranted 5	9	19	2	0	3
Prosecutions commenced 5	44	18	29	22	7
Prohibition orders without conviction 4	1	2	0	0	1
Prosecutions concluded 5 Convictions Non-convictions 6	43 44	29 22	11 15	24 8	14 4
Total Fines	$1,353,400	$692,700	$200,700	$1,407,400	$879,850

*All complaints received are now given distinct file numbers. Thus, "Complaints received" and "Files opened" are the same.

1. 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 the previous years.

2. These figures are estimates. They are accurate within 5 percent.

3. Prior year statistics included written, oral and in-person information contacts. This year's statistic includes only written contacts.

4. 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.

5. May include matters referred during previous years.

6. This 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.