MONOPOLY, REASONABLENESS AND PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE CANADIAN ANTI-COMBINES LAW

Authors

  • W FRIEDMANN

Abstract

For the first fifty years it was the small-time scheming of so many junk and bottle dealers, cinema exhibitors, and associations of master plumbers and electricians. But lately, anti-monopoly legislation has had to contend with the giants, as industries of national importance are brought before the courts or are the subjects of ongoing investigations. There are three impediments to combating restrictive trade practices: that defenders of free enterprise and competition regard legislative endeavours to prevent engorged mega-firms from choking their competition as a curse; the courts’ catalogue of inflammatory terminology such as “right of competition,” “freedom of enterprise” and “public interest” that read like tautologies in their judgements; and ill-advised law-making and economic interference that come from the courts’ blank refusal to consider the economic implications of their judgements. Clearly, in this climate, it is important that the Restrictive Trade Practices Commission use their statutory power to examine the public interest in more than just a formal sense.

Keywords:

Trade Regulation

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Published

1955-02-01

Issue

Section

Legal Commentary