On October 5, 2011, the Competition Bureau released a "Position Statement" summarizing its approach in reviewing Canadian Tire's recent acquisition of the Forzani Group. The transaction, which took the form of a takeover bid, was announced on May 9, 2011, and the Bureau cleared the transaction on August 3, 2011. The transaction provided the Bureau with the relatively rare opportunity to review a retail merger between retailers carrying on business using different business models: Forzani is a national sporting goods retailer (including sports apparel and equipment), and Canadian Tire is a mass merchandiser selling products, through a network of independent dealers, across a range of categories, including sporting goods as well as automotive parts, tools, house wares and electronics.

In reviewing the transaction, the Position Statement notes that the Bureau analysed its potential competitive effects in a number of possible product markets (retail sale of sporting equipment; retail sale of certain sporting equipment categories, such as hockey equipment; and the retail sale of specific sporting equipment products, such as hockey skates), but ultimately concluded that it was not necessary to conclusively define the relevant product market(s) in light of econometric evidence showing that neither party responded competitively to the presence of the other in local markets, and to evidence that this was unlikely to change post-merger. To our knowledge, this is the first time the Bureau has expressly relied on such a competitive effects analysis in its assessment of a merger, although the potential for such an approach was signalled in its draft revisions to the Merger Enforcement Guidelines, published earlier in 2011.

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