VANCOUVER AND TORONTO — Canada's Competition Bureau has launched investigations into the parent companies of grocery chains Loblaws and Sobeys for alleged anticompetitive conduct, court documents reveal, with Sobeys' owner calling the inquiry "unlawful."
At the time, deputy commissioner Anthony Durocher told a House of Commons committee that property controls can be a barrier both for independent grocery stores and chains looking to expand, as well as for foreign players looking to enter Canada. Details of the investigations are contained in a pair of court applications lodged by the commissioner on May 6.
The commissioner applied in the Federal Court to order Empire and George Weston to hand over records about real estate holdings, lease agreements, customer data and other records. The commissioner's probe is focused on the companies' operations in Halifax, but also more broadly across the country. The probes are also looking into "exclusivity clauses" in commercial lease agreements that "limit or restrict" who a landowner can lease to and which products can be sold by other parties close to another leaseholders' business.
Previous cases alleging abuse of dominance involved companies with significantly more market power than George Weston or Empire have individually, said Osborne.
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