Price fixing lawsuit in Quebec denied access to evidence

A class action suit against oil companies and gas retailers in Quebec over alleged price fixing got more difficult on Thursday after the Supreme Court of Canada blocked it from accessing evidence from a criminal investigation into the same matter.

Yesterday’s ruling means lawyers for the claimants in the class action cannot interview the chief investigator of the Competition Bureau or get access to evidence, including 220,000 wiretap conversations.

“Disappointed,” said George Iny, executive director of the Automobile Protection Association, which is one of the parties behind the class action suits.

“It will make our case a lot harder, but it’s still possible to do it.”

However Iny said the ruling pertains only to the discovery process of the case, which is the preliminary work to gather evidence for a possible trial. He said he hopes the claimants can still force the investigator to testify or produce documents during the actual trial.

“We’re still in the game,” said Iny.

Iny’s organization filed two class action suits after the Competition Bureau found evidence of price fixing among gas retailers in four cities in Quebec and charged 39 individuals and 15 companies.

A handful of the criminal cases are still before the courts, but most of the accused pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial, resulting in some jail sentences and fines.