Michelle Segal

The plaintiff brought a motion to certify a national class proceeding alleging that the defendants, major manufacturers of fragrance ingredients, engaged in an unlawful price-fixing conspiracy contrary to the Competition Act.

The proposed class included direct, indirect, and umbrella purchasers of fragrance ingredients and products.

The court dismissed the certification motion, finding that the plaintiff failed to meet the 'some basis in fact' test.

The evidence relied upon consisted merely of unsubstantiated suspicions and investigations by foreign regulators, without any direct or indirect evidence of a conspiracy or its impact in Canada.

Furthermore, the court found the proposed class definition unmanageable, as it would be nearly impossible for individuals to self-identify as class members.

The plaintiff sought certification of a class action against four major airlines, alleging a conspiracy to fix prices and suppress the supply of transborder air travel between Canada and the United States.

The court dismissed the certification motion, finding that the pleadings failed to disclose a reasonable cause of action as they contained only bald, unsupported allegations of a conspiracy without material facts.

The court also found no basis in fact for the proposed common issues, noting that the plaintiff's reliance on parallel U.S. litigation regarding domestic travel was insufficient to support a conspiracy in the transborder market.

Furthermore, the plaintiff's expert methodology for calculating class-wide loss was deemed purely hypothetical, and the representative plaintiff was found inadequate as she purchased her ticket using loyalty points rather than directly from the defendants.