Tag Archives: marketing law

May 16, 2024

Significant Proposed Deceptive Marketing Law Amendments to the Competition Act Under Bill C-59

RECENT AND PROPOSED COMPETITION ACT AMENDMENTS (BILLS C-56 AND C-59) On December 15, 2023, Bill C-56 (An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act), which introduced the first of two new significant rounds of amendments to the federal Competition Act, largely came into force. … Read the rest of this entry »

October 5, 2023

Dufresne Group Settles Ordinary Selling Price (OSP) and Urgency Cue Marketing Case with Competition Bureau For $3.25 Million

On September 27, 2023, the Canadian Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced that the Dufresne Group Inc. (TDG) (Dufresne Group), based in Manitoba, had agreed to settle an ordinary selling price (OSP) and urgency cue marketing related case for CDN $3.25 million (see: Competition Bureau, News Release, … Read the rest of this entry »

May 3, 2023

Competition Commissioner Argues Key Canadian Markets Are Highly Concentrated and Again Advocates for Stage II Competition Act Amendments

On May 2, 2023, Canada’s Globe and Mail published an opinion by Canada’s Commissioner of Competition (Commissioner), Matthew Boswell, arguing that key Canadian consumer markets are highly concentrated and urging for another new round of Competition Act reform. In this regard, in general, the Commissioner … Read the rest of this entry »

April 17, 2023

New Competition Bureau Guidance on Drip Pricing Advertising Claims

On April 17, 2023 the Competition Bureau (Bureau) published a new edition of its Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest (Volume 6) (Marketing Digest). The Bureau’s new Marketing Digest discusses three Canadian advertising/marketing related topics: the use of scarcity cues (i.e., claims that an offering has limited availability), … Read the rest of this entry »

September 1, 2022

“No Purchase Required” (Equal Dignity) Entry Requirements Under Canadian Contest/Sweepstakes Law

A Canadian promotional contest/sweepstakes law question we commonly receive from our clients is how the “no purchase required” entry option works for Canadian contests/sweepstakes. The starting point to understand the requirement for most, but not all, contests/sweepstakes in Canada to include a no purchase required … Read the rest of this entry »

July 12, 2022

Canadian Competition Act Amendments (2022): New Drip Pricing Advertising/Marketing Prohibitions

On June 23, 2022, Bill C-19 (the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No.1) received royal assent, introducing sweeping amendments to Canada’s federal Competition Act. These amendments include significant increases to the civil and criminal penalties under the Competition Act, new wage fixing and no poach conspiracy offences and … Read the rest of this entry »

December 4, 2021

Canadian Federal and Ontario Cannabis Advertising Laws and Rules: An Overview

We have been receiving an increasing number of inquiries relating to Canadian laws, regulations and regulatory guidelines for cannabis marketing and advertising. As such, we provided an overview of key advertising and marketing related requirements under the federal Cannabis Act and Ontario laws and rules … Read the rest of this entry »

November 7, 2021

Influencer, Co-Sponsor and List Sharing Agreements For Canadian Promotions and Marketing

Over the past few years, we have seen an increased number of our clients (both brands and agencies) participate in contests and other type of promotions in which a third party is responsible for most of the marketing and administration. Some examples include franchisors engaging … Read the rest of this entry »