Canada’s newest Competition Bureau commissioner hasn’t been afraid to kill sacred cows in big business over the past couple of years.
Since she was appointed to head the bureau in 2009, Melanie Aitken has:
•forced major changes in telecom marketing (in her case against Bell Canada);
•helped preserve airline competition by preventing an Air Canada-United Airlines joint venture; and
•provided Canadians with more options for selling homes by forcing the Canadian Real Estate Association to open up its Multiple Listing Service to homeowners.
But Aitken’s Competition Tribunal case against Visa and MasterCard is already running into stiff opposition in B.C. from the two parties she’s aiming to protect. •
