John Bodrug is a partner in the competition and foreign investment review group. In practice for over 20 years, he has extensive experience in all aspects of competition law, including mergers, price fixing investigations (such as the thermal fax paper inquiry) and other pricing, distribution and advertising matters.

John has represented and advised Canadian and U.S.-based corporations across a range of industries, including the energy and resources, transportation, agricultural, manufacturing, financial services, retailing and consumer products sectors. John has obtained Competition Act and Investment Canada Act clearances for numerous merger transactions.  For example, he recently represented United Grain Growers with respect to the regulatory aspects of its acquisition of Agricore Cooperative Limited to form the largest grain handling company in western Canada, including two separate Competition Tribunal proceedings to resolve issues raised by the Competition Bureau in certain markets.  John also regularly represents companies that are the subject of inquiries under the criminal provisions of the Competition Act, including both in the context of contested matters, resolutions short of proceedings, and immunity or leniency agreements.  John has also acted as a special counsel for the Director of the Competition Bureau in the Competition Tribunal proceedings relating to the Interac shared electronic financial services network under the Competition Act.

John was ranked among the world’s top 45 competition lawyers under the age of 45 in a worldwide survey by the Global Competition Review. He is recognized annually as a most frequently recommended competition law practitioner in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory, is included in Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers, in Law Business Research's The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers as a foremost competition legal practitioner and in PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook, in which he was called a "leading light in merger control proceedings". He is cited annually in Chambers Global’s The World's Leading Lawyers, in which he is referred to as "one of the smartest competition lawyers in Canada" and IFLR 1000's Guide to the World's Leading Business Law Firms as a leading individual in Canadian Competition/Antitrust law.

John is a co-editor of Competition Law of Canada (Juris Publishing), a leading text on Canadian antitrust law.  He has written numerous articles in the field of competition and trade practice law, including articles on the Canadian merger enforcement process in the ABA's Antitrust Law Journal and Antitrust magazine, and has been a speaker at ABA, CBA and other conferences. John is a member of the executive of the Competition Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association. He is also a non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network, an organization of international competition authorities devoted to improving worldwide cooperation and convergence. John has lectured on competition law at the University of Western Ontario Law School, where he obtained his LL.B. in 1985.

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