Announcement

The OPC responds to Senator’s Competition Act consultation

February 21, 2022

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has provided a submission discussing the intersection between privacy and competition law in response to a consultation request from a Senator examining the Competition Act in the digital age.

Senator Howard Wetston has said he hopes the consultation will inform parliamentary discussions of the Competition Act.

In our submission we note that the nature of the digital economy has created an increasing cross-regulatory intersection between privacy, competition and consumer protection. The OPC has been a leader in cross-regulatory intersections, as chair of the Global Privacy Assembly’s Digital Citizen and Consumer Working Group (DCCWG).

Drawing on DCCWG research, the OPC suggests that data and privacy considerations will play an increasingly important role in competition policy, and as such, the need for cross-regulatory collaboration will continue to grow as well.

“I would encourage you to consider, where appropriate, amendments to the Competition Act that would enable, or strengthen, cooperation with all regulators who share responsibility for overseeing digital markets,” Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien said in the submission.