Annual Report 1994/95 - Increase in Applications to the Competition TribunalCompetition Bureau: Annual Report 1994-95 - Increase in Applications to the Competition Tribunal

In last year's Report, I stated "...I expect to file a number of applications before the Competition Tribunal in 1994-95 that should bring several of the large inquiries underway in the Civil Matters Branch into the public domain." During the fiscal year three applications were made to the Competition Tribunal in non-merger civil matters.

Yellow Pages Advertising

One of my long-standing commitments has been the revitalization of the Consent Order process. My application under the abuse of dominance provisions concerning certain business practices of Yellow Pages publishers was the first opportunity to act on this commitment.

Upon my application, the Competition Tribunal issued a Consent Order on November 18, 1994, in relation to the sale of national advertising in the Yellow Pages. This Consent Order is the first resulting from an application under the abuse of dominance provisions of the Act. This is also the first joint dominance case to be brought before the Tribunal.

The Consent Order in this matter enables independent selling companies to enter the market for national advertising and allows for competition among publishers in the sale of national advertising in Yellow Pages directories. National advertising means advertising placed in the Yellow Pages of two or more publishers.

This Consent Order was obtained in a little over two months from filing, signaling that the process can be both quick and effective. Together with theTribunal's decision to review the rules of the Consent Order process, this will go a long way towards its revitalization.

Tele-Direct (Publications) Inc. and Tele-Direct (Services) Inc.

I filed an application under sections 75, 77 and 79 of the Act before the Competition Tribunal on December 22, 1994, alleging that two subsidiaries of Bell Canada Enterprises, Tele-Direct (Publi cations) Inc., and Tele-Direct (Services) Inc., each with market shares in excess of 90 percent, control the publication of telephone directories in their territories, which includes the provision of advertising space in such directories and related advertising services. The application alleges that the two companies have tied the sale of advertising services to advertising space in the Yellow Pages and that this conduct has prevented advertising agencies from competing for the advertising services business of advertisers in a substantial part of the market. It also alleges that the respondents have refused to supply publishers of competing directories with current telephone subscriber listing information which is obtained on an exclusive basis from the telephone companies. As well, the respondents are alleged to have engaged in additional anti-competitive acts which have had an exclusionary effect on advertising agencies, advertising consultants and competing telephone direc tory publishers.

In the application, I am asking the Competition Tribunal to prohibit the two companies from tying the sale of advertising services to the sale of advertising space in the Yellow Pages and from engaging in other anti-competitive acts toward other participants in the market in the hope that this will result in more competitive product and service offerings for consumers of these products.

The Competition Tribunal scheduled hearings to commence on September 5, 1995.

A.C. Nielsen Company of Canada

On April 5, 1994, I filed an application under the abuse of dominant position provisions of the Act before the Competition Tribunal, alleging that A.C. Nielsen Company of Canada (A.C. Nielsen) abused its dominant position in the business of providing scanner-based marketing research to consumer packaged goods manufacturers throughout Canada. The application alleged that A.C. Nielsen entered into exclusive contracts with the major retail chains for the purchase of scanner data and that the contracts prevent other firms from gaining access to scanner data and competing with A.C. Nielsen in the sale of scanner-based market tracking services.

Between September 1994 and February 1995, there were a number of motions before the Competition Tribunal and the Federal Court.

Hearings before the Tribunal were scheduled to resume in April 1995.