In a speech during the 2025 International Bar Association (IBA) annual conference, Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell emphasized that competition agencies should provide stability, grounded in the pillars of evidence-based enforcement and international cooperation, in this landscape of change and uncertainty.
Boswell listed three structural forces contributing to this era of evolution: the redefined global trade, the rising geopolitical competition in critical sectors, and the swift technological and artificial intelligence (AI) advances transforming markets and business models.
Boswell stressed that stability is essential for businesses wanting predictability, consumers seeking protection, and economies searching for ways to grow.
“Evidence-based enforcement and international cooperation have been our compass through turbulence, and they must remain so as we navigate what’s ahead,” Boswell said in the speech.
Evidence-based enforcement
According to Boswell, independent, agile, and evidence-based enforcement offers clarity to businesses, confidence to stakeholders, and credibility to institutions, especially amid today’s rapid pace of developments.
Boswell emphasized the importance of continuously adapting policies and capabilities, including by ensuring the right talent, skills, and technology to detect, assess, and process complex theories of harm and the associated evidence. Boswell also stressed the need to update methods for gathering and analyzing this evidence.
“This isn’t only about protecting and promoting competition in AI-driven markets—it’s about using AI to strengthen our own enforcement capabilities,” Boswell said in the speech.
Boswell noted that Canada’s Competition Bureau has adopted AI tools in an effort to improve detection, enhance analysis, and hasten case processing.
International cooperation
Boswell acknowledged that different jurisdictions have their own competition laws and market studies. However, he stated that many companies and competition issues still cover multiple jurisdictions.
Boswell noted that Canada has benefited significantly from collaborating at the international level, sharing intelligence, coordinating remedies, and learning from the approaches of other jurisdictions when:
- going through three rounds of legislative reforms to the Competition Act, 1985
- updating enforcement guidelines in accordance with these amendments
- implementing new tools
- advancing enforcement investigations
“Over the years, our collaborative efforts with enforcers and policymakers at multilateral fora—including the OECD, ICN and G7—have been at the leading edge of some of the most important challenges we have faced as we tackled competition issues in digital markets,” Boswell said in the speech.
Boswell noted that the Bureau, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK Competition and Markets Authority last year, is currently working on renewing the Canada-EU Competition Cooperation Agreement.
Boswell highlighted the IBA’s critical role in combining global knowledge, encouraging dialogue and collaboration among legal professionals and enforcers across jurisdictions, and influencing best practices to ensure that economic policy focuses on competition.
“By championing evidence-based approaches and advocating for fair, open markets, this community strengthens the foundation we all depend on,” Boswell said in the speech.
Merger guidelines consultation
In a recent news release, the Bureau urged interested Canadians to submit their comments regarding any aspects of its proposed merger enforcement guidelines before Feb. 11, 2026.
The proposed guidelines update and amend the 2011 version and explain how the Bureau enforces the Competition Act’s amended merger provisions following the legislation’s recent modernization.
According to the Bureau’s news release, the updated guidelines aim to reflect how the Bureau currently analyzes mergers and help businesses adapt to the modern economy and the shifting role of digital technologies.
The Bureau conducted an initial consultation when reviewing its merger guidance in November 2024. The Bureau said it plans to publish its final guidelines after its current consultation.
“Effective merger control is essential for Canadians to receive the benefits of a competitive marketplace,” the Bureau’s news release said. “Anti-competitive mergers can harm the economy, resulting in higher prices, fewer choices, and less innovation.”