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let's not start talking about these three cases at the supreme court review
cases to be heard this fall involving class actions what can you tell me about
the three cases are called of microsoft's online an infinite are set
to be heard
on october seventeenth and they really raise two very large issues of policy
for the court
the first is whether or not indirect purchaser consumer
has a remedy at law for anti-competitive conduct
the second question relates to all larger question of class action practice
in terms of what's the ticket prices entry to get access to our class
proceedings ac
is a very important issue especially given the
dramatic with the class proceedings have affected our legal system over the past
week
now how do you expect
the court is likely
to deal with he's cases
well it's difficult to predict uh...
let me talk a bit about the fax in these cases because i think that's important
foundation appreciate where we think the court
what happened people two thousand is that we got a surprise to see panel to
one the peace accord people set
on that under our antitrust law indirect purchasers and consumers
happen
in their reasoning flow from
uh... a supreme court candid case in two thousand seven that dealt with the law
restitution
which suggested that defendants couldn't assert certain types of defenses
and that suggested intern
that uh...
if that's true
indirect
purchasers indirect claims would not have a right of action catalog first
text bc court of appeal looked at that decision said what that means for
antitrust is that direct purchasers have claims indirect purchasers consumers
dot result in a lot of surprises especially in latin history where many
of these cases have proceeded on behalf of
consumers and have resulted in someone's systems
and shortly thereafter we had an opposite decision by the quebec court of
appeal in our system extras we have to appellate courts when one says yeah
someone says no that usually about suggest that there are no direct path to
the supreme court ken
with the supreme court is always an interest in issues of public law
historically there's been lots of interesting class proceedings which we
found surprising given the dramatic impact the class proceedings have legal
system asked
uh... but fortunately a spring creek and regrettably
immigrant leave both hidden two cases coming out bc in one case can back
and
is going to be very interesting appeal because of racism range of issues
relating to competition policy
as well as
um... access to justice for consumers who have been potentially harmed by
criminal conduct
one of the implications of these cases of how the decided for canadian business
well from the floor latest perspective these cases your axed giving right-wing
stick spurs
from the defense perspectives and from the perspective of business the concern
is that these cases reflect the larger trend of strategic class-action shin
force
strategically diction
we're concerned that this is litigation that is not so much time to time paris
the dispute there's more tied to uh... bringing a suit that raises risk for
business and acne pressure business into prominent settlements
until reflecting
in each of these three cases uh... there was some international investigation
that may or may not have resulted in please
when each of these three cases canadian regulators looked at these cases either
didn't investigate or investigated enclosed for
none of the defendants and treaties
contribute convicted of any misconduct in any way
so the regulators have looked at these defendants and said that these are not
really worth pursuing from the perspective of
to answer correct of just
but there's a group of plaintiffs' lawyers who believe differently
and they believe differently
and are view of axis justice
but from the perspective of businesses who have to deal with these claims once
they get certified
uh... it's uh...
an issue that raises business risks with what would otherwise been seen as normal
competitive
so hopefully we'll get some clarification from the court
on one whether or not there is indeed uh... kasich action and number two on a
separate issue in terms of what's that
a price of interest to the class proceedings because that's an issue
that's tight recipients
i would expect decision number six months and i can tell you from them
perspective the practicing bar we really do need that practical guidance often
that issue as well as a member of the other issues there before the court case