London Inc. Fall 2022 - 14

Upfront Law
PROVING THE FIX
Leveraging the power of many to set wrongs right, Siskinds remains
at the forefront of Canadian price-fixing litigation
IT'S NOT THE kind of thing that often makes tourism
pamphlets, so it may surprise you to learn that London is,
in fact, the hub of civil price-fixing enforcement in Canada.
" It has been for about 20 years or so, " says Siskinds LLP
(www.siskinds.com) partner Charles Wright. " Some of the
most important decisions have come from judges in the
London courthouse. "
Wright and the price-fixing litigation department he
leads at Siskinds are a big part of that. " The team, if you
will, started because there was a particular case, " explains
Wright. " In our situation, the case was the vitamins
price-fixing cartel. "
It will be useful to pause here. When people hear the term
" price-fixing " there's a good chance they think about gas
prices all being similar (not actually price fixing) or about
the bread price scandal from a few years ago. But a lot of
major price-fixing cases happen further up the supply chain,
away from public view.
The vitamins price-fixing case is a good example: four
multinational companies were found to be fixing the price
of vitamin b3 (among others), which raised prices for staple
products throughout the supply chain, from manufacturers
all the way down to everyday consumers (one consumer
14|londonincmagazine.ca|FALL 2022
 : Siskinds LLP associate lawyers Garett Hunter and Bridget
Moran, and partner, Linda Visser
group figured that every Canadian was owed about $5).
" It was huge, " recalls Wright. Canadian law, however,
didn't really have precedent for making consumers whole.
" We sort of sat down and thought, 'Gee, these companies
really increased their bottom lines and profits at the hands
of consumers and industry,' " he says. " So, we developed a
theory, we read the law, we did that case. "
Their legal innovation was to argue that a guilty defendant
was on the hook for their ill-gotten proceeds, but that it was
up to the courts and the plaintiffs to determine how a settlement
would be divvied up. The courts agreed with the theory,
and Siskinds was able to settle their piece of the vitamin case
for $132 million - one of the biggest settlements in Canadian
history at that time.
More importantly, says Wright, it set the pattern for other
law firms to follow. " For many years, there really wasn't a
remedy. We think now there is a quite viable remedy, and we
have access to the courts. "
It has since put Siskinds at the forefront of prosecuting
price-fixing class actions in Canada, and price-fixing class
http://www.siskinds.com
London Inc. Fall 2022

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