November 2, 2025

Welcome to Letters from CAMP, a newsletter on anti-monopoly activity in Canada and abroad, brought to you by the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. In this instalment we have:

• Federal government proposes banning non-compete agreements in regulated industries
• Consolidated agricultural input markets push U.S. and Canadian farmers to the brink
• Big Tech expands its spending spree trying to bend European policy to its will

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Now let’s dive in.

Government Aims to Empower Workers by Banning Non-competes in Regulated Industries

In the leadup to the upcoming federal budget on Nov 4^th, the government has announced it will propose legislation banning non-compete agreements in federally regulated sectors like banking. While the government has committed to a consultation before proposing the legislation, this is welcome news on the labour and monopoly front. Non-compete agreements, clauses in employment contracts that limit the ability of employees to quit and move to competitors or start their own competing businesses, are a serious drag on the power of workers.

Non-competes are just one example of how oligopolies hurt not only consumers, but workers as well. By imposing non-competes, companies attempt to extend their control over their employees to their professional futures, reducing the incentive to compete for workers through higher pay, better working conditions, and potential for advancement. They also weaken the future productivity and dynamism of our economy by making it more difficult for entrepreneurs to take their knowledge and create competitive alternatives to their oligopoly employers.

This move is enough step in the right direction in the fight for workers to have more control over their professional lives. Ontario banned non-compete agreements in 2021, and other provinces would be wise to follow suit. While the FTC under the Trump administration has given up its defense of workers by abandoning its proposed national ban on non-competes, Canada is well positioned to keep up the momentum. In fact, a strong stance against labour restrictions and for labour mobility contributes to making Canada a more attractive destination for the workers of the world. While CAMP is hoping for more pro-competition content in the federal budget, the government’s proposed ban on non-competes is a positive sign that the government is taking the multi-faceted harms of monopoly seriously.

📰 CAMP in the News 📰

• Penrose, As Blue Jays fans stare down high-priced World Series tickets, can provinces really stop scalpers? (Investigative Journalism Foundation)

Sowing the Seeds of Consolidation

In front of the U.S. Senate this week, farmers and their allies testified on the skyrocketing costs of bringing crops to market. While participants named several culprits, including tariffs on Canadian fertilizer ingredients, one common issue emerged: the rampant consolidation that has occurred in the markets for agricultural inputs.

Farmers in the U.S. and Canada alike are facing off against consolidated industries for nearly all of their core inputs, such as seeds, fertilizer, and farming equipment. In corn, soy and cotton seed markets, Dupont and Monsanto together control over two thirds of the US market and dominate world seed markets as well. Incidentally, the cost of seeds has risen, on average, 270%- with some costs rising as much as 463%, with up to 70% of the cost being “seed royalties” paid to dominant multinationals. Agricultural equipment manufacturers and dealers continue to consolidate, squeezing farmers with proprietary software that cannot be repaired without the company’s blessing. The same is true for fertilizer.

Beyond rising prices, monopolized markets rob independent farmers of control over their own businesses and livelihoods. Consolidation means less bargaining power for farmers, making them vulnerable to the whims of the companies on both sides of their business. For big agribusiness, this dispossession is an opportunity, with rising prices fueling a dramatic rise in consolidation of farmland ownership in the hands of multinational conglomerates and investors. Though we’ve said it a hundred times before, until it changes it will bear repeating: to create a fairer food system that delivers for producers and consumers, we need to break up the monopolies at each link in the food chain.

📚 What We’re Reading 📚

• Vaheesan and Bedoya, The Trump Administration's Latest Assault on Workers (Project Syndicate)
• Helmore, Microsoft reports strong earnings as Azure hit by major outage (The Guardian)
• Ryan, Europe Isn’t Weak—It Just Pretends To Be. Here’s How to Fix That. (Tech Policy Press)

Big Tech’s European Spending Spree

A new report shows that Big Tech lobbying in Europe have reached new heights, with lobbying expenditures growing to €151 million (~$244 million CAD) in 2025. The details of this campaign are sobering. As Corporate Observatory Europe shows, tech’s astounding lobbying spend is now greater than the combined spending of finance, pharmaceuticals and automotive, industries that don’t exactly shy away from shaping the policy process. Unsurprisingly it’s Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon leading the charge.

Beyond straightforward lobbying, Big Tech employs increasingly sophisticated tactics to exert influence. Using the channels of communication they control, they have distorted European discourse around regulations, painting efforts of countries to regain some semblance of control over their online spaces as forms of censorship. Big Tech has also increasingly engaged in shadow lobbying through proxies that can obscure their Big Tech connections. They have also shown a willingness to adopt the tactics of authoritarian states, stoking political extremism and division, directly undermining democratic institutions.

Canada is no exception to these efforts. Big Tech and its proxies, think tanks like the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Chamber of Progress are taking to the field to push their agenda. Regardless of the progressive varnish that some of these organizations apply, their real interest is the unfettered power of the companies that fund them. As Canada wrestles with our own dependence on these platforms, we need to be alert to the full scope of the efforts of these companies to bend the policy process to their will. As the experience of Europe and the United States shows, this desire for control extends beyond markets and over our politics and public sphere.

If you have any monopoly tips or stories you'd like to share, drop us a line at hello@antimonopoly.ca

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