The CFA met with the Competition Bureau on Friday, May 5 to discuss the CFA’s written submission on the Bureau’s draft enforcement guidelines regarding recent amendments to the Competition Act, which would criminalize franchisors and franchisees who include wage-fixing and no-poaching provisions in their agreements. The new provisions come into effect on June 23, 2023.

The CFA was represented by Sherry McNeil, President & CEO; Darrell Jarvis, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, General Counsel to the CFA; Scott Munnoch, Temple Scott Associates, CFA’s GR Consultant; Larry Weinberg, Cassels Brock & Blackwell, LLP, prior General Counsel to the CFA; and Davit Akman, Cassels Brock & Blackwell, LLP, Competition & Foreign Investment Partner.

The CFA took the meeting as an opportunity to open lines of communication with the Bureau on an ongoing basis. During the meeting, the CFA focused on the unique nature of the franchising business model, the potential harm, and unintended consequences to that model from the new provisions, and the uncertainties left unaddressed by the draft guidelines. The CFA advocated an incremental approach to the enforcement of the new provisions that avoids doing harm to Canadian franchises and the franchise business model itself. That approach would involve limiting the Bureau’s enforcement of the new provisions to situations where the agreement in which the provisions in question appear is a sham.

The Bureau thanked us for our submission and promised to take our comments into consideration. The CFA will keep members apprised on developments of this advocacy priority, which impacts all franchisors and franchisees.

A copy of the CFA’s written submission can be viewed here: