April 19, 2026

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:

• Survey finds addressing monopolized markets is a priority for majority of Canadian small businesses
• CBC Marketplace investigation catches Loblaws and Sobeys overcharging customers for meat… again
• US jury finds Live Nation Ticketmaster is a monopoly, paving the way for a breakup

If you enjoy Letters, please consider sharing and supporting CAMP.

Now let’s dive in.

80% of Small Businesses Say Tackling Monopoly Should Be Government Priority

Every Canadian feels the pressure that monopolies put on their pocketbooks. But while we often think of their harms from a consumer perspective, monopolies are just as dangerous for businesses on the wrong side of concentrated markets. This is particularly the case for small and medium-sized businesses trying to carve out a competitive niche among the giants of our economy. A new study out this week from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) makes clear that small businesses want something done about it: 80% ofsmall and medium businesses surveyed agree that addressing concentrated markets should be a priority for government.

Consolidation has a unique set of harms for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Beyond high prices and shabby customer service, monopolies reduce the freedom of entrepreneurs to decide how they run their own businesses. Any business that depends on a monopoly for a key input or relies on a single customer for the majority of their business knows the score: they’ve got a partner setting the terms of their business, whether they like it or not. Flexing monopoly muscle against other businesses is one of the key ways monopolies cement their dominance, extracting unfair terms unavailable to competitors with less market clout.

The results of the CFIB survey remind us that taking on monopolies is a pro-business effort. By breaking open the monopoly bottlenecks in our economy we can make Canada a better place not just for Canadians as consumers and workers, but as entrepreneurs as well. If we ignore the harms of monopolies on businesses, we set ourselves up for disappointment as we try to spur growth from markets increasingly hostile to entrepreneurship. The message from Canadian small businesses is clear: government must do something about Canada’s monopolized markets.

📰 CAMP in the News 📰

• ​Wealthsimple bets on X and Canadian users aren’t happy (National Observer)

The Price is Wrong, Again: Grocers Found Shortchanging Customers for a Second Time

Canadian grocery giant Loblaws is proud of its digital prowess. The website for Loblaw Digital, the company’s in-house tech team, boasts that they build future-forward experiences that solve complex problems. They’re not wrong: the team is responsible for coordinating grocery deliveries across the country and using data to personalize attractive offers for millions of shoppers. The only problem? These advanced capabilities aren’t spread evenly across their business.

For the second time, major grocers Loblaws and Sobeys have been found shortchanging customers in the meat aisle, underweighting meat and charging customers for more than they’re taking home. This was a year after a similar investigation by CBC Marketplace found the same conduct occurring and major grocers committed to getting the problem under control. What does this mean for consumers? On top of already inflated food prices, Canadians are paying premium prices for the plastic and Styrofoam packaging their food comes in, to the tune of potentially millions of dollars. For Loblaws, advanced supply chain logistics are a breeze. Setting the scale at the deli counter correctly? Not so much.

Accurate pricing is the foundation of functioning markets. If customers can’t trust what they see on the shelf, that process starts to break down. It shouldn’t be the job of customers to bring their own scales to see if they’re getting what they paid for. What’s worse, because we’ve allowed our grocery markets to consolidate, shortchanged customers who want to take their business elsewhere may be out of luck. Canadians need clear action to restore trust in the grocery aisle. Far-reaching inspections of grocery weights, transparent reporting, and steep fines are table stakes in response to this kind of deception.

📚 What We’re Reading 📚

• ​Clickbait Cures: Unmasking the Deceptive Health Ad Infrastructure on Meta and Google (Reset.Tech)
• Van Dyck, The Fair Play Façade: How the American Sports Economy Became a Laboratory for Corporate Power, From Pee Wee to the Pros (American Economic Liberties Project)

Never Give Up: Jury Finds Ticketmaster is a Monopoly Despite Loser DOJ Settlement

After some high antitrust drama, an American jury has found that Live Nation Ticketmaster is a monopoly when in the market for big ticket live entertainment. If you recall, last month both the judge and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lead prosecutor were blindsided by a last-minute settlement worked out between the live entertainment giant and DOJ leadership. Put simply, the settlement was weak, especially with Ticketmaster’s track record of not abiding by agreements with regulators. Thankfully, antitrust in the U.S. is not a one-man show.

Despite the settlement, the many state attorneys general that originally brought the suit alongside the DOJ kept the case moving, continuing litigation without the support of their federal partner. The jury decision is important because it opens the door for real remedies to Live Nation Ticketmaster’s power in live entertainment, not the band aids proposed in the heavily lobbied for settlement. This is a major victory for the concertgoers that Ticketmaster executives joked about “robbing blind” who have had to suffer through high ticket prices, exorbitant fees, and the sophisticated scalpers the company let run rampant.

The outcome is also helpful to efforts to derail the Canadian wing of Live Nation Ticketmaster’s monopoly. A suit by the Consumer’s Council of Canada against the live entertainment giant may soon head to the Competition Tribunal, and a positive outcome in the U.S. case is wind in the sails of a northern challenge. We still need to wait and see what the judge orders in the U.S. case, but the monopoly finding is a reminder that consumers know a monopoly when they see one.

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

Follow CAMP on Twitter LinkedIn Instagram or Facebook​