Biography: Competition

Yves Comtois is a partner in McCarthy Tétrault's competition group in Montreal. He advises a broad range of Canadian and international clients on all aspects of Canadian competition law. He practised competition law for three years with a law firm in Brussels before joining McCarthy Tétrault.

His recent experience includes Bemis Company's acquisition of Rio Tinto's Food Packaging America business; Amcor's acquisition of Rio Tinto's Global Pharmaceuticals, Global Tobacco, Food Packaging Europe and Food Packaging Asia businesses; TriStar Oil & Gas' merger with Petrobank Energy and Resources; Molson Inc's merger with Coors; L'Oréal's merger with The Body Shop; Abitibi-Consolidated Inc's merger with Bowater Incorporated; Rexel SA's and Sonepar SA's acquisition of Hagemeyer NV; and Dow Chemical's acquisition of Rohm and Haas.

Mr Comtois is a frequent speaker at many national and international conferences. He chaired the 2007 Annual Fall Conference on Competition Law of the Canadian Bar Association.

He has written numerous articles and papers relating to competition law, including 'L'abus de position dominante sous la loupe de la Cour d'appel fédérale', 'Une analyse de Canada Pipe", 2006 Annual Fall Conference on Competition Law of the CBA; 'Overview of Coordinated Effects Analysis in Canadian Merger Review', 2005 Annual Fall Conference on Competition Law of the CBA; 'Deceptive Marketing Cases: A call for more transparency', The Canadian Institute 11th Annual Advertising & Marketing Law Conference, Toronto, 2005; 'Abus de position dominante', Insight Conference, Montreal, 2004.

Mr Comtois co-authored the first French-language textbook on Canadian competition law with his colleagues Madeleine Renaud and Yves Bériault. It was published by Carswell in July 1999.

He is recognised as a leading competition lawyer in several well-known legal publications, including Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009 edition), PLC's Cross-Border Competition Handbook (2009) and The International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists (2011). He has also appeared in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leader in his field since 2002.

Mr Comtois received his BA in 1986, and his civil and common law degrees in 1990 from McGill University. He also received his diploma of specialised studies in competition law from the College of Europe in Bruges in 1991. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1995.