Law Times

LAW TIMES COVERING ONTARIO'S LEGAL SCENE | MARCH 11, 2019 5 www.lawtimesnews.com BY AIDAN MACNAB For Law Times THE Competition Bureau of Canada has appointed Mat- thew Boswell to commissioner of competition, a man with an eye toward Big Data, intellectual property, innovation and the digital economy. Boswell has spent a year in the interim commissioner role since John Pecman stepped down in May of last year. Prior to joining the compe- tition bureau in 2011, Boswell served as an assistant Crown attorney in Toronto before be- coming senior litigation counsel in the enforcement branch at the Ontario Securities Commission, where he focused on securities fraud. "Given that much of com- missioner Boswell's career has been spent as a prosecutor, it would not surprise me to see a greater emphasis on finding and bringing merger or abuse cases, especially in support of the Bu- reau's innovation agenda," says Nikiforos Iatrou, a litigator and partner in McCarthy Tétrault LLP's competition and foreign investment group. As Boswell has been in se- nior management at the bureau throughout his predecessor's term, Iatrou says he expects to see a consistency in the overall approach, which includes a fo- cus on filling gaps in innovation and addressing Big Data. "I think what we can expect is a continuation of the bureau's policy efforts regarding those is- sues, which are interesting, not just in the Canadian competi- tion sphere but in the interna- tional competition law commu- nity and indeed with the public at large," says David Rosner, a partner at Goodmans LLP and member of the competition, an- titrust and foreign investment group. "We can anticipate further energy on the policy develop- ment front and we can antici- pate that some of these policies that are in different phases of de- velopment will be matured and issued formally under Matt's reign, over the next little while," Rosner says. Boswell was appointed on March 5 and will serve a five- year term. He has been with the com- petition bureau since January 2011, first serving as associate deputy commissioner for crimi- nal matters, moving in 2012 to senior deputy commissioner for cartels and deceptive marketing and then in 2017 spent one year as senior deputy commissioner for mergers and monopolistic practices. He has been interim com- missioner since May 30, 2018. Antonio Di Domenico, a partner and co-leader at the an- titrust, competition and mar- keting group at Fasken Martin- eau DuMoulin LLP, says that Boswell's appointment will be greeted warmly by the competi- tion bar. "It's a welcome appointment among the competition bar, having regard to Matthew's vast experience in the area and, in particular, his vast experience in all the enforcement branches within the competition bureau," says Di Domenico. Boswell has spoken about mending the relationship be- tween the competition bureau and the prosecutors who pursue its cases, Iatrou says, adding that, if he's successful in this, there could be an increase in cartel prosecutions under his watch. "He got off on the right foot by having the director of the public prosecutions service for- mally sign on to the new immu- nity and leniency programs, and time will tell whether — from a Canadian perspective — that will help to buck the interna- tional trend of declining im- munity applications and cartel enforcement," Iatrou says. Last October, in a speech at the Global Series in Ottawa, Boswell raised the fact that Canada ranked just 17th out of 47 high-income countries in terms of innovation, scoring low on knowledge and technol- ogy outputs, business sophis- tication and creative outputs, according to the Global Inno- vation Index. Boswell also spoke about the need to design regulation that spurs rather than hinders inno- vation, referring to the sharing economy as a phenomenon reg- ulators should embrace as a gen- erator of greater competition. "As an advocate for competi- tion, the bureau urges regula- tors to recognize the sharing economy as a golden opportu- nity to bring greater competi- tion to Canada's marketplace. . . . Sometimes, resistance is fu- tile," he said. Rosner says he expects Boswell to continue on the same track the bureau has been on with the sharing — aka gig — economy. "We fully anticipate that the bureau will continue to advo- cate for regulation that is mini- mal and permits new business models to attempt entry and that doesn't favour either exist- ing or older business models," he says. LT Matthew Boswell was named commissioner of the Competition Bureau on March 5. 'It's a welcome appointment' New commissioner expected to focus on Big Data NEWS Visit gpllm.law.utoronto.ca Questions? gpllm@utoronto.ca Master the law. Canada's leading law school offers a graduate degree in four unique streams: Business Law Canadian Law in a Global Context Innovation, Law and Technology Law of Leadership Apply today. Untitled-1 1 2018-05-10 10:52 AM

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