Deal Law Wire

Deals involving AI bring about specific and unique issues for consideration during the due diligence process. Understanding the specific challenges created by AI is important for companies to ensure that the AI technology holds genuine value and would not raise red flags during the course of a transaction.

Cannabis-related cross-border transactions have become more creative since the initial wave of transactions that occurred post-legalization in Canada. Changes in the US federal law enforcement policy, coupled with the Toronto Stock Exchange (the TSX) and the TSX Venture Exchange (the TSXV) clarifying their positions on listed issuers that are involved in marijuana-related activities in the US, may have played a part in the transaction structures that we are now seeing.

Dans notre article du 24 novembre 2020, il était question de l’adoption par certains pays d’une taxe sur les bénéfices tirés des services numériques fournis par les entreprises multinationales et de l’impact d’une telle taxe sur les transactions transfrontalières. À ce moment toutefois, il n’y avait, au Canada, aucun cadre législatif régissant l’imposition des services numériques.

Since Canada’s legalization of cannabis, the cannabis sector has been a steady source of M&A activity. However, as the novelty of legalization wears off and with the continued stabilization of product demand, market participants have begun evaluating new opportunities and implementing creative M&A strategies to continue their growth in the Canadian market.

Despite several interruptions to Parliament over the last few years, Canada continues to move toward affirmation of its commitment to fight against modern slavery in supply chains. The most recent attempt is Bill S-211, An Act to enact the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act and to amend the Customs Tariff (the Bill) which was first introduced to the Senate on November 24, 2021.

La rétention de la main-d’œuvre clé représente plus que jamais un enjeu d’envergure pour les sociétés. Le caractère intuitu personae du contrat d’emploi participe à cet enjeu puisque, considérant la nature et l’aspect personnel de ce type de contrat, il est impossible de forcer un employé à demeurer à l’emploi d’une entreprise et tout changement se rapportant à l’employeur est susceptible de motiver des employés clés à mettre un terme à leur lien d’emploi.

In recent years, an increasing number of companies have started to employ artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies in the development of their products and in their day-to-day business. This shift to utilizing AI can be very advantageous given its far-reaching potential impact; however, with fast-paced growth comes complex questions, novel issues and increased uncertainty.

Privacy and cybersecurity practices of target companies are being increasingly scrutinized throughout the due diligence process in M&A transactions. Particularly, buyers want to understand the risk and value inherent in sellers’ data assets and sellers want to manage transactional and post-closing risks.

The threshold for certain pre-closing net benefit reviews under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) and the threshold for a pre-closing merger notification under the Competition Act have been updated for 2023. For the second year in a row, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development has announced that the threshold for pre-closing merger notifications under the Competition Act will not change this year; the transaction-size threshold will remain C$93 million.