Mar. 22, 2024 – The Supreme Court of Canada recently delivered a landmark decision on the privacy rights of Internet users. In R v Bykovets , police investigating an alleged online fraud requested and obtained a suspect’s Internet Protocol (IP) address from a third-party payment processor without a warrant. ...
Technology
Governance Insights: 10 Trends that GCs and Boards Need to Know
Jan. 24, 2024 – The latest edition of Davies’ Governance Insights is now available. In this issue, we explore 10 important trends that will help general counsel and boards navigate the year ahead. In order to help you with your strategic and compliance planning, we discuss issues including the re-emergence of...
Dec. 07, 2023 – It has been one year since OpenAI released ChatGPT, arguably catalyzing today’s new wave of interest in AI. This surge of interest is driving substantial investments in AI technologies and a heightened urgency to address the use and regulation of AI. In today’s environment, where business teams...
Lexpert Recognizes 14 Davies Partners as Leading Advisors in Technology and Health Sciences
June 28, 2023 – Over 40 companies and investors in the innovation sector turned to Davies in the past 18 months for their most complex transactions, with a combined deal value exceeding US$44 billion. As a result, the 2023 Lexpert Special Edition: Technology and Health Sciences ranks 14 Davies partners among...
Competition Bureau Tests Canada’s New Drip Pricing Law
May 25, 2023 – Canada’s Commissioner of Competition filed an application under the deceptive marketing provisions of the Competition Act (Act) on May 18, 2023, alleging that Cineplex Inc. is making false or misleading representations to the public on its website and mobile app about the prices of its movie...
First OPC Ruling for 2023 Will Impact Third-Party Processor Contracts
Feb. 08, 2023 – The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) recently released findings stemming from a customer complaint that Home Depot of Canada (Home Depot) had violated the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) by disclosing customers’ personal information to...
Canadian Foreign Investment Law in 2023: National Security Is (Still) Paramount
Feb. 03, 2023 – In this annual review of Canadian foreign investment law, we discuss developments over the past year, including proposed amendments to the Investment Canada Act (ICA) and new government policies on the treatment of specific categories of investments. We also consider how these trends will...
Canadian Competition Law Trends for 2023: Significant Amendments and More Change Ahead
Feb. 03, 2023 – Significant amendments to Canada’s Competition Act (Act) dominated discussion about Canadian competition law policy and enforcement in 2022. Given the full implementation of the first round of amendments and the formal commencement of public consultation on further amendments, potential...
Dec. 02, 2022 – In an article published in The Hill Times (available to subscribers), Natasha MacParland and Robin Schwill say insolvencies in the crypto sector raise issues already seen in cannabis bankruptcies. Natasha and Robin note they are looking for the federal government to modernize Canada’s...
Sixteen Davies Partners Recognized as Technology and Health Science Leaders
June 16, 2022 – Lexpert has named 16 Davies partners among Canada’s top practitioners in the 2022 Lexpert Special Edition: Technology and Health Sciences . A sampling of notable recent work includes advising Generac Holdings Inc., a leading energy technology company, in its US$770-million acquisition of ecobee...
Filling the Gap: Scope of Canadian Anti-Money Laundering Laws Expanded
June 07, 2022 – The Canadian federal government has fulfilled its promise to expand Canada’s anti-money laundering (AML) regime to cover crowdfunding platforms and certain payment service providers (PSPs) that previously operated outside the scope of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist...
Following the Money: Emergencies Act Invoked to Expand Anti-Money Laundering Rules
Feb. 17, 2022 – The Canadian federal government announced this week that it was invoking the never-before-used Emergencies Act 1 in response to ongoing blockades and occupations arising out of the self-titled “Freedom Convoy” protests. As part of the emergency declaration, the government announced additional...
Canadian Competition Law Reform and Trends in 2022
Feb. 14, 2022 – As we look ahead to the trends and issues likely to be at the forefront of Canadian competition law policy and enforcement in 2022, it is clear that discussion of significant potential legislative reforms will be an important focus. In addition, key developments in merger review and class...
Québec Ushers in a Brave New World of Privacy
Sept. 24, 2021 – The Québec National Assembly has passed and the Lieutenant-Governor has assented to Bill 64, An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information (Act). The Act, which became law on September 22, 2021, contains a broad range of important amendments to...
Sept. 21, 2021 – On June 23, 2021, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) announced the adoption of National Instrument 45-110 – Start-up Crowdfunding Registration and Prospectus Exemptions (NI 45-110) in an effort to adopt a harmonized national regime for startup crowdfunding. NI 45-110, which comes into...
Leaseweb Global Acquires Montréal’s iWeb
Aug. 05, 2021 – Davies acted as counsel to Leaseweb Global, a leading hosting and cloud services company based in the Netherlands, in its recently announced acquisition of iWeb, a Canadian cloud hosting, server hosting and hosted solutions provider. The acquisition enables Leaseweb to build a significant market...
Ignore at Your Own Risk: OSC Accuses Crypto Exchange Poloniex of Disregarding Securities Laws
June 04, 2021 – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently made good on its promise to hold crypto asset trading platforms (CTPs) operating in Ontario accountable for failing to comply with Ontario securities laws. In a hard-hitting statement of allegations issued on May 25, 2021, the OSC initiated...
Modernizing Canada’s Retail Payments Ecosystem: Draft Retail Payments Activities Act Introduced
June 01, 2021 – The year 2020 will be remembered as a watershed for many reasons, including being the year that the world was forced to move online to an extent never seen before. Online commerce rose to stratospheric levels in 2020 – Amazon’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2020 showed that it was the...
Wattpad Completes Acquisition by Naver
May 10, 2021 – Davies advised global multi-platform entertainment company Wattpad Corp. in its acquisition by South Korean Internet company Naver Corporation, home of digital comics platform WEBTOON, in a cash and stock transaction valued at more than an estimated US$600 million. The acquisition will fuel the...
Time to Talk: CSA Threatens Enforcement Against Unregistered Crypto Trading Platforms
Apr. 15, 2021 – The regulation of crypto asset trading platforms (CTPs) has been a recent focus of Canadian securities regulators, due in part to the popularity of crypto assets among new investors, high profile failures of Canadian CTPs and the heightened risks related to the loss and theft of crypto assets. Yet...
CRA Turns Its Focus to Cryptocurrency Transactions
Apr. 13, 2021 – The Federal Court (FC) recently authorized the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to issue an “unnamed persons requirement” (UPR) to Coinsquare Ltd. for information and documentation relating to users of Coinsquare, a cryptocurrency exchange operating in Canada. This UPR is part of an on-going CRA...
E-Commerce Technology Company WeCommerce Acquires Stamped
Apr. 09, 2021 – Canadian e-commerce technology company WeCommerce Holdings Ltd. (WeCommerce) has successfully closed the previously announced acquisition of substantially all the assets of Stamped. io Pte. Ltd., a leading software-as-a-service platform based in Singapore, for cash and share consideration of up to...
Electronic Signatures: A Guide for Ontario Businesses
Mar. 04, 2021 – As we approach the one-year mark for the many Canadians working remotely, executing commercial agreements through electronic means has become “the new normal.” This bulletin provides a brief overview of the current framework in Ontario governing electronic documents and electronic execution of such...
Novacap Closes Largest-Ever Private Equity Fund
Feb. 24, 2021 – Novacap Management Inc, one of Canada's leading private equity firms, announced last week the closing of its US$1. 865-billion fund, Novacap TMT VI, its largest private equity fund to date. This new investment fund, specializing in technology, media and telecommunications companies (TMT), brings...
Ten Davies Partners Recognized as Technology Leaders
Feb. 19, 2021 – The Lexpert Special Edition: Technology 2021 has named 10 Davies partners among Canada’s top technology lawyers, affirming our standing as a leader in the fast-growing tech sector. Over the past year, our team has acted for clients across the tech ecosystem on their most innovative and...
Montréal: North America’s Video Gaming Studio Metropolis
Feb. 17, 2021 – In this article originally published in Tax Notes International , Davies lawyers Michael Kandev and Olivia Khazam review Montréal’s generous provincial tax incentives for video game industry developers and investors, as well as some of the principal tax issues related to mergers and...
Where Things Stand: Update on the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020
Dec. 22, 2020 – In our November 20 privacy update , we flagged key elements of Bill C-11, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020 , a bill that was introduced on November 17, 2020 by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains. Bill C-11 had one day of debate on second reading, on...
Early Warnings: Canada’s Regulators Issue Warning Letters to Mobile App Companies
Dec. 18, 2020 – In late November, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) and the Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced the issuance of 36 warning letters to various mobile app companies in Canada. The letters are reported to...
New Privacy Law for Canada: Government Tables the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020
Nov. 20, 2020 – With dramatic growth in the global data economy, and increased reliance on online activity as a result of the global pandemic, protection of privacy and personal information has never been as relevant as it is now. Like many other jurisdictions, Canada has recognized the need for a significant...
Canada’s Top Court Provides Guidance on SLAPPs
Sept. 21, 2020 – Overview Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are lawsuits that are intended not to seek justice, but instead to intimidate and silence critics. Regardless of the merits of its underlying claim, a well-heeled plaintiff is often able to drag the critic through costly and...
The Times They Are A Changin’ Canadian Privacy Law in the Private Sector
Sept. 18, 2020 – When privacy laws for the private sector were in their infancy in Canada, more than 20 years ago, there was no Internet of Things, Facebook was FaceMash and limited to the Harvard campus, and Google was a toddler. In 2020 there are on average 4 billion Google searches a day, Facebook has more than...
Eight Davies Partners Recognized in Lexpert Special Edition: Technology 2020
May 14, 2020 – Reflecting our reputation for innovation and expertise in the fast-changing technology industry, Lexpert Magazine has named eight Davies partners among Canada’s elite practitioners in the Lexpert Special Edition: Technology 2020 . The following partners were recognized in this year’s guide: ...
Technology in the Time of a Pandemic
Mar. 31, 2020 – Davies continually invests in technology and infrastructure to allow our lawyers to respond rapidly to clients’ needs from anywhere in the world at any time. As a result, we remain fully capable of providing the highest level of service and counsel to clients. We recognize that data security is a...
Davies Wins FinTech and AI Law Firm of the Year
Nov. 19, 2019 – We are pleased to have won “Law Firm of the Year” at the 5th Annual Canadian FinTech and AI Awards for our far-reaching impact in the fintech and AI sector over the past year. Known for our blend of legal expertise and business savvy, our industry-leading fintech team has been instrumental in...
In Focus: Building High-Performing Boards
Oct. 03, 2019 – Building a high-performing board of directors has never been more important and more complex. The rise in shareholder activism, the increased scrutiny over environmental, social and governance issues and their oversight, and the growth of disruptive technologies are only a few of the reasons...
Davies Governance Insights 2019
Oct. 03, 2019 – Davies Governance Insights 2019 is a comprehensive report that analyzes the governance trends and issues most important to Canadian public companies. Now in its ninth edition, Governance Insights is designed to be a playbook for navigating the diverse and complex challenges facing today’s...
Top Court Expands Scope of Potential Liability in Price-Fixing Class Actions
Sept. 24, 2019 – The Supreme Court of Canada has released its long-awaited decision in two companion appeals that have significant implications for class actions alleging conduct that contravenes the criminal provisions found in Part VI of the Competition Act (Act). In its decision in Pioneer Corporation v...
Sept. 19, 2019 – The Financial Post recently featured Anita Banicevic ’s insights on the Competition Bureau’s call for complaints concerning anticompetitive conduct in the digital economy. In the article , Anita explains that the Bureau “is looking to collect information and understand facts to determine...
What’s FaceApp and Facebook Got to Do with Competition Compliance in Canada?
Aug. 06, 2019 – While summer can sometimes be a quieter time for antitrust enforcement, the debate about the role of antitrust in the tech sector is hotter than ever with a number of significant developments over the past few weeks. Among these developments, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently...
Canadian Commissioner of Competition Challenges Acquisition of Specialized Software Business
June 19, 2019 – The Commissioner of Competition recently filed a notice of application with the Canadian Competition Tribunal challenging the acquisition of a Canadian software company that closed on May 13, 2019. The Commissioner claims that the acquisition has resulted in a merger to monopoly for the...
Proposed Amendments to the GST/HST Treatment of Cryptocurrencies
May 27, 2019 – The Department of Finance (Canada) (Finance Canada) has released, for public comment, draft legislative proposals (Draft Proposals) to amend the Excise Tax Act (ETA) in order to address certain issues regarding the treatment of virtual currencies for the purposes of the goods and services...
Crypto Crackdown: Will Blockchain Remain Relevant in 2019?
May 21, 2019 – The following article was originally published in our 2019 Canadian Capital Markets Report . Read the complete report . Following blockchain’s meteoric ascent to relevance in the second half of 2017, many predicted that blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin, would spur massive...
2019 Canadian Capital Markets Report
May 21, 2019 – The year 2018 witnessed ongoing volatility in global markets, fuelled by geopolitical uncertainty, rising trade tensions and slowing world economies. In Canada, emerging market sectors continued to gain steam, most notably the cannabis industry, which experienced a dramatic uptick in investment...
Davies Collaborates with Five Leading Law Firms on Blockchain-Based Smart Contract Project
May 10, 2019 – Six of Canada’s leading law firms recently joined forces on a groundbreaking pilot project to develop a complex “smart contract” on the Ethereum blockchain. The experiment sought to explore the potential benefits of smart contracts in the legal context to better understand how law firms can...
TSX Launches Sandbox Initiative for Issuers That Do Not Satisfy Standard Listing Conditions
Apr. 17, 2019 – In its April 12, 2019 Staff Notice (2019-0002), the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) announced a framework to govern the exercise of its discretion to accept listing applications that do not satisfy the TSX’s listing conditions. The guidance in Staff Notice 2019-0002 covers both initial applications...
Descartes Systems Group Acquires Visual Compliance for $330 Million
Jan. 31, 2019 – Davies acted for Management Systems Resources Inc. in the sale of its Visual Compliance and eCustoms business to Descartes Systems Group for $330 million. Based in Toronto, Visual Compliance is a leading provider of automated global trade compliance software solutions, with a focus on denied and...
Major Changes to Canada’s Trademark Laws to Come into Force in June 2019
Nov. 21, 2018 – The Canadian government introduced in 2014 the first procedural step toward ratifying and implementing five intellectual property law treaties in order to align Canadian practice with that of most other countries in the world. The government has also introduced amendments to its existing...
Nov. 12, 2018 – Perhaps the most controversial feature of Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL) 1 is its broad approach to liability for various actors and intermediaries involved in electronic communications. As we have previously explained , persons may be liable under CASL if they “cause” or “permit” a...
Oct. 15, 2018 – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently approved a settlement agreement with eToro (Europe) Limited (eToro), a Cyprus-based brokerage firm that operates an online cryptocurrency and stock trading platform, imposing over C$2.8 million in penalties on eToro for violating registration and...
Davies Governance Insights 2018
Oct. 03, 2018 – Davies’ annual Governance Insights reports analyze the top governance trends and issues important to Canadian boards, senior management, in-house counsel and governance observers. In the 2018 edition, we shine the spotlight on the following issues that shaped the corporate governance landscape...
Elliot Greenstone Speaks to Les Affaires About New and Emerging Business Sectors in Québec
Sept. 27, 2018 – In an article published recently in Les Affaires (in French), Davies partner Elliot Greenstone shares his insights on how a firm like Davies can best serve clients in innovative business sectors emerging in Québec. According to Elliot, keeping current requires not only being ready to assist...
Davies Welcomes Michel Gélinas
Sept. 07, 2018 – Davies is pleased to announce that Michel Gélinas has joined the firm as a partner in our Montréal office. Michel’s practice focuses on advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital and corporate finance, both in Canada and internationally. “Michel’s reputation...
Davies Joins Global Legal Blockchain Consortium
July 25, 2018 – Davies has joined the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium (GLBC), a non-profit industry group dedicated to the adoption and standardization of blockchain technology in the business of law. Davies looks forward to contributing its expertise to help GLBC build a lasting and universal framework for...
Koch Industries Invests in Genesis Robotics
Apr. 13, 2018 – Davies acted as Canadian counsel to Koch Chemical Technology Group, a leading design, engineering and manufacturing firm, in its strategic controlling investment in Genesis Robotics, a Canadian robotics technology innovator and subsidiary of Genesis Advanced Technology. Under the agreement, the...
Demystifying Crypto in Canada: Will 2018 Be the Year of Blockchain?
Mar. 07, 2018 – The year 2017 was one of tremendous growth for blockchain, as the technology underlying Bitcoin gained attention from mainstream media outlets, financial institutions, investment funds and securities regulators across the globe. Blockchain’s rise to prominence was led by an interest in...
OSC Invites TokenFunder to Play in the CSA Sandbox
Oct. 26, 2017 – Earlier this month, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) released its decision to grant exemptive relief from applicable Canadian registration requirements to Token Funder Inc. (TokenFunder) for the launch of its initial offering of FNDR tokens. By blessing the upcoming offering by TokenFunder...
Geoffrey Rawle, Zain Rizvi Referenced in Financial Post Article About Bitcoin
Sept. 22, 2017 – Davies lawyers Geoffrey Rawle and Zain Rizvi ’s recent client communication on the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) approach to cryptocurrency offerings is referenced in a recent Financial Post article. The Post’s article discusses the strength of the CSA’s directive and quotes Geoff...
Cooling the Blockchain Boom: CSA Staff Narrow the Path for Cryptocurrency Offerings
Sept. 07, 2017 – Cryptocurrency users take note – Canadian securities laws may apply, and regulators are paying attention. On August 24, 2017, the Canadian Securities Administrators released strong guidance on how securities regulators will view and regulate cryptocurrency offerings, also known as initial coin or...
Jim Dinning Comments on Influencer Sponsorships
July 13, 2017 – Davies partner Jim Dinning was quoted in a CBC article about a growing trend among Canadian athletes and other influencers who are tagging paid social media posts with #sponsored or #ad on their feeds. The rise of influencers making sponsored posts has highlighted the lack of clarity regarding...
Suspension of Private Relief: CASL’s Private Right of Action Delayed
June 09, 2017 – Since its implementation in July 2014, Canada’s anti-spam law, or CASL, has continued to generate a fair amount of controversy due to its broad application and the availability of significant administrative monetary penalties. As we described in prior publications ( The Other Shoe Drops: The...
The Other Shoe Drops: The Private Right of Action Under CASL
Apr. 26, 2017 – The bulk of Canada’s anti-spam law, known colloquially as CASL, came into force on July 1, 2014. CASL sets out strict rules for a variety of online behaviours and is considered the strictest anti-spam law in the world, providing for administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) of up to $1 million for...
Fintech TIO Networks to Be Acquired by PayPal for C$304 Million
Mar. 09, 2017 – Davies advised the Special Committee of the board of directors of TIO Networks Corp., a leading North American cloud-based multi-channel bill payment processor, in its acquisition by PayPal Holdings, Inc. TIO accelerated PayPal’s entry into bill payments with 14 million consumer bill pay accounts,...
Ontario Court of Appeal Denies Leave to Appeal Nortel Allocation Decision
May 04, 2016 – On May 3, 2016, the Court of Appeal for Ontario released its decision (Leave Decision) denying leave to appeal from Justice Newbould’s allocation of the proceeds of sale of the remains of the Nortel Networks group of companies (Allocation Decision). The main points arising from the decision...
Apr. 01, 2016 – As part of Canada’s Federal Budget that was presented on March 22, 2016, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced the repeal, effective January 1, 2017, of the existing eligible capital property ( ECP ) tax regime and its merger into the existing depreciable capital property rules. While the new...
July 23, 2015 – In a Financial Post article concerning a class-action lawsuit launched on behalf of all taxi and limousine drivers, owners and brokers against Uber Technologies Inc. , centring on the company’s UberX service, Davies partner Kent Thomson discusses the legal hurdles the suit will have to...
July 02, 2015 – On June 18, 2015, the Digital Privacy Act (Act) came into effect, amending the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and implementing significant amendments to the private sector privacy regime. The amendments include the expansion of the Privacy Commissioner’s...
Canadian Pre-Merger Notification: Overview
June 22, 2015 – The Competition Act R.S.C. 1985, c. C34 ( Competition Act ) requires that mergers, acquisitions and other business combinations that meet certain prescribed thresholds be notified to the Commissioner of Competition (Commissioner), who is the head of the federal Competition Bureau (Bureau),...
First Penalty Issued Under Canada’s New Anti-Spam Law
Mar. 11, 2015 – On March 5, 2015, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued its first Notice of Violation under Canada’s anti-spam legislation (known as CASL), which came into force on July 1, 2014. Despite its name, CASL is not limited to what one might normally consider spam...
Aug. 01, 2014 – Worldwide, regulators and courts are increasingly engaged in the complex legal and policy issues at the intersection of competition and patent regimes. Trolls, Hopping, Ambush and Hold-up: Emerging International Approaches to the Intersection of Competition and Patent Law surveys the state of...
