Bilateral cooperation between DG Competition and the Canadian Competition Bureau is based on the 1999 EU/Canada Competition Cooperation Agreement. The agreement provides for:
- reciprocal notification of cases under investigation by either authority, where they may affect the important interests of the other party;
- coordination by the two authorities of their enforcement activities, as well as of rendering assistance to each other;
- one party to request the other to take enforcement action, and for one party to take into account the important interests of the other party in the course of its enforcement activities; and
- the exchange of information not affecting either party's confidentiality obligations.
The EU and Canada are negotiating a review of the 1999 Agreement. The new ‘second generation' agreement would further enhance cooperation, in particular by facilitating - under certain conditions - the exchange of confidential information obtained by their respective competition authorities during the course of an investigation.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU is provisionally applied from 2017. This Agreement includes provisions on competition and State aid.
Practices which distort competition and trade (cartels, abuses of dominant position, anti-competitive mergers) shall be prohibited. Both sides need to ensure that state-owned enterprises, monopolies, and enterprises granted special rights will not discriminate against goods, services, or investments from the other party.