181 Bay St, Suite 4400, Brookfield Pl, Bay Wellington Twr, Toronto, ON
Year called to bar: 1991 (ON)
Neil is a co-leader of the Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment and International Trade Groups at McMillan. Neil's competition law practice focuses on merger clearances under the Competition Act; representation in cartel/follow-on, abuse of dominance & other proceedings; and advising on distribution and joint venture issues. His experience includes merger clearances (the leading failing firm case, AIM/TMR); domestic or international cartel cases and/or class actions (including Pioneer Corp. v. Godfrey, 2019 SCC 42, which clarified the standards for certification of competition class actions); and unilateral conduct cases (including a rare successful refusal to deal application, UCDA v. IBC). He has experience with net benefit and national security reviews under the Investment Canada Act. Neil has appeared in the Ontario, BC, Quebec and Federal Courts and the Competition Tribunal and CITT.He is the Global Contributing Editor for the Global Competition Review’s Cartel Regulation deskbook, former Co-chair of the IBA Antitrust Section and is Co-Chair of its Mergers Working Group, Vice-Chair of the CBA Competition and Foreign Investment Review Section and a member of the CD Howe Competition Policy Council, and is on the CUSMA Chapter 10 Dispute Resolution Panel roster.
Canadian courts delivered several hard-hitting decisions affecting Canadian businesses in 2019 and 2020, including the long-awaited release of the Supreme Court of Canada’s administrative law trilogy
On September 28, 2018, Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited (“CCCBL”), a joint venture established between prominent businessman and philanthropist, Larry Tanenbaum O.C., and Junior Bridgeman, a former NBA player, renowned entrepreneur and owner of Kansas City-based Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Company, completed its previously announced acquisition of Coca-Cola Refreshments Canada Company (“CCRC”) from Coca-Cola Refreshments USA, Inc., a subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO).
On August 1, 2015, The WhiteWave Foods Company (WhiteWave), a leading consumer packaged food and beverage company, completed its US$550 million acquisition of Sequel Naturals Ltd. (dba Vega Foods) (Vega), a Vancouver-based maker of plant-based nutrition products. Before the acquisition, Vega was majority owned by Mr. Charles Chang and VMG Partners.
On July 30, 2015, The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and G3 Global Grain Group Limited (G3 Global) completed the “commercialization” of the CWB pursuant to Part 3 of the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, representing the end of an era for CWB. CWB was formed by Parliament in 1935 to market wheat and barley in Western Canada and to monitor grain prices for farmers. The transaction is the culmination of the Canadian government’s promise to farmers in Western Canada to commercialize the CWB and end the decades old monopoly held by the CWB to market grain for and on behalf of Western farmers.
