CANADA – Privacy and data breach class actions are on the rise in many jurisdictions that allow class action litigation, and Canada is no exception. Ontario’s highest appellate court recently ruled on a case involving 280 patients’ records that were improperly accessed and disclosed at an Ontario hospital. The Court affirmed a lower court decision that the representative plaintiff could seek certification of a class action based on the tort of intrusion upon seclusion. This tort…
CANADA – A recent Ontario court decision has underlined the high threshold to be met for parties seeking leave to pursue secondary market securities class actions. In Coffin v. Atlantic Power Corp. (“Coffin”), Justice Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice denied certification of a proposed secondary market securities class action, holding that the claim lacked a reasonable possibility of success and reinforcing the high bar in place to dispense with unmeritorious claims. An action…
CANADA – In a recent post we described the Ontario Court of Appeal’s finding, in Kaynes v. BP, PLC, that Ontario was not the most convenient forum for a class action commenced by an Ontario resident who had purchased the defendant’s securities on the NYSE. The claim alleged market misrepresentation under section 138.3(1) of the Securities Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. S.5. The proposed class included those who purchased securities on the TSX, NYSE and LSE…
CANADA — In an era where secondary market misrepresentation class actions frequently cross the Canada-US border, concerns with the multiplicity of proceedings and the risk of inconsistent decisions are persistent and palpable. In a recent decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal took a step toward alleviating some of these concerns by holding that Ontario was not the most convenient forum to address the claims of proposed class members who purchased the defendant’s shares on foreign…
In October 2011, the Ontario Securities Commission (“OSC“) raised the concept of offering no-contest settlements of the sort commonly employed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“). On March 11th of this year, after receiving some sharply divided feedback in months of public hearings, the OSC announced that it was moving forward with the introduction of a policy that would permit settlement of enforcement proceedings without requiring an admission by the respondent of misconduct…
On February 14, 2013, the Federal Court of Appeal in Kerry Murphy v. Amway Canada Corporation confirmed that Canadian courts will hold parties’ to their agreement to arbitrate, unless there is express legislative language in a statute that excludes or prohibits arbitration agreements or class action waivers. Kerry Murphy (“Murphy”) brought a proposed class action proceeding against the respondent, Amway Canada Corporation (“Amway”). Murphy claimed that Amway’s business practices violated various sections of the Competition Act,…