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Archive for the 'Competition Bureau' Category

August 29, 2014

Earlier today, Canada’s Competition Bureau announced that it has launched a new Quarterly Report as part of its ongoing “Transparency Initiative” (i.e., to increase its communication to Canadians regarding the work the Bureau does). According to the Bureau, its new Quarterly Report “presents statistics relating to a variety of intake measures, merger and non-merger enforcement matters, as well as advocacy, outreach and partnership initiatives”.  I discuss a few key points below that caught my eye.

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August 24, 2014

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has proposed settlements in two cases involving professional associations and codes of ethics that the FTC alleged violated U.S. antitrust laws (the FTC Act) (see: here).  In these two cases, involving the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) and National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the associations agreed to remove provisions in their codes of ethics that, according to the FTC, limited competition among members and raised antitrust law concerns.

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August 15, 2014

CBC has reported that Canada’s Conservative Government still plans to introduce new competition rules in Canada to address the “Canada-U.S. price gap”. Despite significant criticism from Canadian businesses, competition law practitioners and other policy commentators (see for example the CD Howe Institute’s two companion reports recommending that the proposal be abandoned: here and here and my own comments here), according to CBC the Conservatives “intend to move forward on it in due course” and see it as a “budget commitment”.

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Do you need contest rules/precedents
for a Canadian contest?

We offer many types of Canadian contest/sweepstakes law precedents and forms (i.e., Canadian contest/sweepstakes law precedents to run common types of contests in Canada).  These include precedents for random draw contests (i.e., where winners are chosen by random draw), skill contests (e.g., essay, photo or other types of contests where entrants submit content that is judged to enter the contest or for additional entries), trip contests and more.  Also available are individual Canadian contest/sweepstakes precedents, including short rules (“mini-rules”), long rules, winner releases and a Canadian contest law checklist.  For more information or to order, see: Canadian Contest Law Forms/Precedents.  If you would like to discuss legal advice in relation to your contest or other promotion, contact us: Contact.

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In Canada, “competition law” overlaps with advertising and marketing law. One of the reasons for this is because the federal Competition Act in Canada includes a number of advertising and marketing law sections, including some specific provisions relating to promotional contests. (Though of course contests in Canada can involve a number of other areas of law including: contract law, the Criminal Code, privacy law, intellectual property law and now Canada’s recently in force anti-spam law – CASL.)

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CANADIAN CASL (ANTI-SPAM LAW) PRECEDENTS

Do you need a precedent or checklist
to comply with CASL (Canadian anti-spam law)?

We offer Canadian anti-spam law (CASL) precedents and checklists to help electronic marketers comply with CASL.  These include checklists and precedents for express consent requests (including on behalf of third parties), sender identification information, unsubscribe mechanisms, business related exemptions and types of implied consent and documenting consent and scrubbing distribution lists.  We also offer a CASL corporate compliance program.  For more information or to order, see: Anti-Spam (CASL) Precedents/Forms.  If you would like to discuss CASL legal advice or for other advertising or marketing in Canada, including contests/sweepstakes, contact us: contact.

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June 29, 2014

After a last minute flurry of inquiries and companies and individuals finalizing preparations to comply, Canada’s new federal anti-spam legislation will at long last (or as dreaded) come into force on July 1st.  So, for companies and individuals that market electronically and haven’t prepared by Tuesday, it will be “pens down” so to speak or risk the rather draconian potential penalties under the new law.

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June 26, 2014

Several days ago I posted several short notes discussing a few of the more interesting, frequent and important competition and advertising law questions I’ve received over the past few years (see: here and here).  Today I thought I would write one more with a few more “real life” competition/advertising law FAQs – i.e., not hypotheticals worked up by a lawyer but questions I’ve received over the past few years.

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June 26, 2014

Earlier today Canada’s Competition Bureau announced that it had finalized its new Communication During Inquiries Bulletin. The Bulletin had been the subject of public consultations late last year.

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CANADIAN CONTEST RULES/PRECEDENTS

Do you need contest rules and forms for a Canadian contest/sweepstakes? We offer Canadian contest rules and forms for random draw, skill and other common types of Canadian contests (i.e., contest precedents and forms). For more information see Canadian Contest Forms/Precedents.

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As companies and marketers well know by now (or should), Canada’s new federal anti-spam legislation (CASL) will come largely into force on July 1st. The new law will of course impact electronic marketing to Canadians in many sectors and require that marketers consider how they need to comply with CASL both before and after in force.

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    buy-contest-form Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada

    buy-contest-form Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)

    WELCOME TO CANADIAN COMPETITION LAW! - OUR COMPETITION BLOG

    We are a Toronto based competition, advertising and regulatory law firm.

    We offer business, association, government and other clients in Toronto, Canada and internationally efficient and strategic advice in relation to Canadian competition, advertising, regulatory and new media laws. We also offer compliance, education and policy services.

    Our experience includes more than 20 years advising companies, trade and professional associations, governments and other clients in relation to competition, advertising and marketing, promotional contest, cartel, abuse of dominance, competition compliance, refusal to deal and pricing and distribution law matters.

    Our representative work includes filing and defending against Competition Bureau complaints, legal opinions and advice, competition, CASL and advertising compliance programs and strategy in competition and regulatory law matters.

    We have also written and helped develop many competition and advertising law related industry resources including compliance programs, acting as subject matter experts for online and in-person industry compliance courses and Steve Szentesi as Lawyer Editor for Practical Law Canada Competition.

    For more about us, visit our website: here.