Category Archives: Competition Law

February 18, 2012

Telemarketing Update: “Montreal Telemarketers in Fraud Case Still Making Calls”

The CBC reported last week that a Montreal-based telemarketing company, which has been accused of defrauding thousands of small businesses in relation to an alleged invoice scheme for never ordered office supplies, is still making calls (see: Montreal Telemarketers in Fraud Case Still Making Calls). … Read the rest of this entry »

February 11, 2012

Conferences: Introduction to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards & Consumer Complaints Procedure

MARCH 27, 2012 – Toronto Advertising Standards Canada (“ASC”) will be holding an introductory seminar relating to its Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, “Canada’s principal instrument of advertising regulation.” From the ASC: “Consumers are scrutinizing advertising with an increasingly critical eye, and this can be … Read the rest of this entry »

February 10, 2012

Recent Misleading Advertising Penalties and Developments – Is Your Compliance Team Up-to-date?

The Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) and other Canadian regulatory authorities have markedly increased their enforcement of misleading advertising in the past several years.  The following is a brief summary of some of the penalties imposed (or agreed to pursuant to settlement agreements) in Canadian advertising … Read the rest of this entry »

February 9, 2012

New Articles: “Non-Comparative versus Comparative Advertising of Quality”

Claude Fluet (University of Quebec) and Winand Emons (Bern University) have written a paper on comparative advertising entitled: “Non-Comparative versus Comparative Advertising on Quality”. The abstract for their paper is as follows: Two firms produce a good with a horizontal and a vertical characteristic called … Read the rest of this entry »

February 9, 2012

Air Canada Announces “All-in Price” for Airfares – Highlights Market and Regulatory Trends to Advertise the Price, the Complete Price and Nothing But the Complete Price

It seems that a lot of time recently has been spent debating whether the price of products should be fully disclosed in advertising (and that many cases and regulatory announcements have turned on this apparently, but perhaps not so, simple question). For example, last year … Read the rest of this entry »

February 8, 2012

The Greenwashing Domino Effect

Moses & Singer LLP (New York) recently published what I thought was a rather fine comparative law article on greenwashing, entitled The Greenwashing Domino Effect, which includes a discussion of pro-active regulatory steps being taken in Canada. The Greenwashing Domino Effect – By Devika Kewalramani & … Read the rest of this entry »

February 2, 2012

Advertising Update: Is the Price Right? Increased Regulatory Scrutiny and Class Actions for Representations Involving Price

I saw this rather fine note recently by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP (Anita Banicevic, Erika Douglas and David Stolow).  We are reprinting it with permission. Is the Price Right?  Increased Regulatory Scrutiny and Class Actions for Representations Involving Price Businesses operating in Canada should … Read the rest of this entry »

January 28, 2012

Advertising Update: Rogers Makes Constitutional Arguments in Response to Performance Claims Challenge by Competition Bureau

The Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette, Huffington Post and others have reported that Rogers has launched constitutional arguments in response to allegations by the federal Competition Bureau that it misled consumers with performance claims in relation to its Chatr cell phone brand. In particular, according to … Read the rest of this entry »