From hotel rooms and airline seats to concert tickets and ridesharing, algorithms increasingly shape what Canadians pay for everyday goods and services. As businesses around the world turn to automated systems to guide pricing strategies, the practice—known as algorithmic pricing—is rapidly becoming a defining feature of modern digital markets.

Now, Canada’s Competition Bureau has taken a major step toward understanding how this shift could reshape competition, fairness, and consumer protection.

On January 22, 2026, the Bureau released its What We Heard report, summarizing the feedback received through its recent public consultation on algorithmic pricing and competition. The consultation drew more than 100 submissions from a diverse mix of domestic and international respondents, including individuals, businesses, industry associations, academics, legal experts, and consumer advocacy organizations.

Together, those voices paint a nuanced picture: algorithmic pricing holds the potential to drive efficiencies and innovation—but it may also introduce new risks that challenge traditional approaches to competition law.

A Technology Reshaping Markets

At its core, algorithmic pricing uses automated systems and data-driven models to dynamically set or recommend prices. These systems can respond in real time to changes in demand, supply, competitor behaviour, and consumer patterns—allowing businesses to optimize pricing with unprecedented speed and precision.

Participants in the Bureau’s consultation widely acknowledged that such capabilities can generate tangible market benefits. Dynamic pricing tools may help businesses allocate resources more efficiently, reduce waste, and tailor offerings more closely to consumer preferences. In highly competitive markets, this can translate into greater choice and, in some cases, lower prices.

However, many respondents also emphasized that the same technologies capable of increasing efficiency can, under certain conditions, amplify competitive risks.

Four Themes from Public Feedback

The What We Heard report distills stakeholder input into four key themes that frame the evolving policy conversation:

  • Dynamically setting or recommending prices creates market efficiencies.
    Automated pricing tools can improve responsiveness, reduce transaction costs, and enhance operational performance.
  • Algorithmic pricing can lead to anticompetitive behaviour.
    Concerns include the potential for algorithms to facilitate coordinated pricing, reduce price competition, or reinforce market power—intentionally or otherwise.
  • A lack of data transparency could harm consumers, workers, and competition.
    When pricing systems operate as “black boxes,” it becomes difficult for regulators, competitors, and consumers to understand how prices are formed or to challenge potentially harmful outcomes.
  • Government regulations should address anticompetitive conduct without stifling innovation.
    Stakeholders called for a balanced approach that targets harmful behaviour while preserving space for technological advancement and productivity gains.

Taken together, these themes reflect a growing recognition that competition policy must evolve alongside digital market realities.

Building a Foundation for Future Enforcement

The Bureau has positioned the consultation as an early but important step toward building a robust understanding of algorithmic pricing and its competitive implications.

“The purpose of the consultation was for the Bureau to build a robust understanding of algorithmic pricing so we could respond swiftly and effectively to this emerging trend. We thank all those who provided feedback,” the Bureau noted.

Jeanne Pratt, Acting Commissioner of Competition, underscored the dual nature of the technology and the importance of continued engagement:

“Algorithmic pricing can improve efficiency and choice, but it also presents risks related to fairness, transparency, and competition. We will continue to engage with partners, the international community, market participants and Canadians as we advance our understanding of these emerging competition issues.”

A Signal to Markets

The release of the What We Heard report sends a clear signal: algorithmic pricing is no longer a niche technical issue—it is a mainstream competition policy concern.

For businesses deploying pricing algorithms, the report highlights the importance of compliance-by-design, internal governance, and careful monitoring of how automated tools behave in real-world markets.

For policymakers, it reinforces the need to modernize analytical frameworks and enforcement tools to address conduct that may not fit neatly into traditional categories of collusion or abuse of dominance.

And for consumers, the Bureau’s work represents a step toward ensuring that digital transformation delivers not only convenience and innovation, but also fairness and trust.

As algorithmic decision-making becomes further embedded across the economy, Canada’s competition authorities are making it clear that technological change will be met with equally sophisticated oversight.