January 15, 2010 Lower thresholds for both Competition Act and Investment Canada Act in 2010 Susan M. Hutton Unless changed by regulation, the "size of target" threshold for advance notification under the Competition Act of transactions involving Canadian businesses will likely be reduced to C$67 million, in accordance with the GDP indexing provisions which were introduced in amendments to the Act last March. The amount will be official once published by the Minister in the Canada Gazette, and until then the previous C$70 million threshold continues to apply. Meanwhile, Industry Canada has published the new Investment Canada Act threshold for review of direct WTO Investor acquisitions of control of Canadian businesses for transactions closing in 2010. The new review threshold will be C$299 million, based on the book value of assets of the Canadian business. Draft regulations that would see the threshold increased to C$600 million and based on the "enterprise value" of the Canadian business have not yet been passed, and are being reviewed following receipt of comments by the Minister. Both thresholds are indexed to Canadian GDP, which fell during 2009 due to the global recession.   Return to Top

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