Update: Our Legal Case to Stop Unfair Competition

We would like to let you know the final outcome of our legal case. We write and sell booklets of aviation exam questions and answers. Recently, a competitor of our's marketed their version of such exam guides on the internet for free. This seemed to be unfair competition to us, because it takes quite a bit of time and trouble to work up such a product in book form or on line. In our view, the defendants' practice of selling their products at zero prices had contravened Canada's laws that prohibit predatory pricing. So we went to court.

We are pleased that the courts have accepted our primary contention that the defendants had in fact sold their products at "unreasonably low prices" based on the Illegal Trade Practises provisions of Canada's Competition Act. However, given that our case occurred during the post 9/11 worldwide downturn in the aviation sector, the courts were not satisfied that the evidence conclusively proved that the defendants' conduct had caused direct economic injury to our business, and for this reason, our case was dismissed.

Those interested in obtaining further information about our case can refer to the original trial decision, which was upheld on appeal by both the plaintiff and by the defendants (leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied).

We are pleased to have made our small contribution to Canadian competition law.

For our part, we shall continue to improve our aviation training publications, and to compete based on quality, which we have been doing successfully since we first opened shop.

Happy flying!

Michael J. Culhane