Section 45 — Competition Act: Conspiracies, agreements or arrangements between competitors

Every person commits an offence who, with a competitor of that person with respect to a product, conspires, agrees or arranges to fix, maintain, increase or control the price for the supply of the product; to allocate sales, territories, customers or markets for the production or supply of the product; or to fix, maintain, control, prevent, lessen or eliminate the production or supply of the product. Every person who is an employer commits an offence who, with another employer who is not affiliated with that person, conspires, agrees or arranges to fix, maintain, decrease or control salaries, wages or terms and conditions of employment; or to not solicit or hire each other’s employees. Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (1.1) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years or to a fine in the discretion of the court, or to both. In a prosecution under subsection (1) or (1.1), the court may infer the existence of a conspiracy, agreement or arrangement from circumstantial evidence, with or without direct evidence of communication between or among the alleged parties to it, but, for greater certainty, the conspiracy, agreement or arrangement must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (1) or (1.1) in respect of a conspiracy, agreement or arrangement that would otherwise contravene that subsection if that person establishes, on a balance of probabilities, that it is ancillary to a broader or separate agreement or arrangement that includes the same parties, and it is directly related to, and reasonably necessary for giving effect to, the objective of that broader or separate agreement or arrangement; and the broader or separate agreement or arrangement, considered alone, does not contravene that subsection. No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (1) in respect of a conspiracy, agreement or arrangement that relates only to the export of products from Canada, unless the conspiracy, agreement or arrangement has resulted in or is likely to result in a reduction or limitation of the real value of exports of a product; has restricted or is likely to restrict any person from entering into or expanding the business of exporting products from Canada; or is in respect only of the supply of services that facilitate the export of products from Canada. Subsection (1) does not apply if the conspiracy, agreement or arrangement is entered into only by parties each of which is, in respect of every one of the others, an affiliate; is between federal financial institutions and is described in subsection 49(1); or is an arrangement , as defined in section 53.7 of the Canada Transportation Act , that has been authorized by the Minister of Transport under subsection 53.73(8) of that Act and for which the authorization has not been revoked, if the conspiracy, agreement or arrangement is directly related to, and reasonably necessary for giving effect to, the objective of the arrangement. The rules and principles of the common law that render a requirement or authorization by or under another Act of Parliament or the legislature of a province a defence to a prosecution under subsection (1), as it read immediately before the coming into force of this section, continue in force and apply in respect of a prosecution under subsection (1) or (1.1). The following definitions apply in this section. competitor includes a person who it is reasonable to believe would be likely to compete with respect to a product in the absence of a conspiracy, agreement or arrangement to do anything referred to in paragraphs (1)(a) to (c). ( concurrent ) price includes any discount, rebate, allowance, price concession or other advantage in relation to the supply of a product. ( prix )