Archive for the 'Compliance' Category
May 1, 2014
Earlier today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) posted a new post on their “Competition Matters” blog on competition law and associations entitled: Antitrust by Association(s). In its new post, the FTC discusses the historic application of the antitrust laws to associations, some early antitrust and association case law, some key antitrust and association related topics (e.g., anti-competitive codes of ethics) and some of the recent U.S. enforcement in the area (music teachers and legal support professionals association cases).
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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April 30, 2014
Over the past few days and weeks I’ve spoken to, and advised, a number of companies and individuals about the upcoming coming into force of Canada’s federal anti-spam legislation (CASL).
April 27, 2014
Co-author with Mark Katz (Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg)
Information surveys are one of the most important functions that an association can perform for members. Surveys can be used to facilitate research initiatives and benchmarking exercises, increase market transparency and customer knowledge, promote improved products and services, and support industry lobbying and advocacy efforts.
April 25, 2014
Information about an interesting new competition law and associations webinar come into my inbox this morning entitled: Antitrust Risks for Trade Associations and Members: Ensuring Compliance Amid Intensive Federal Scrutiny. Given that I work with many associations, I thought I would post the details. While this particular webinar is US-based, many of the same issues and compliance strategies are the same in Canada. Strafford is also an excellent CLE provider (and no I have not been paid to say that!)
April 16, 2014
Facebook recently announced some new changes to combat News Feed spam (see: News Feed FYI: Cleaning Up News Feed Spam). In making the announcement, Facebook said:
“The goal of News Feed is to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important and relevant to them. Today we are announcing a series of improvements to News Feed to reduce stories that people frequently tell us are spammy and that they don’t want to see. Many of these stories are published by Pages that deliberately try and game News Feed to get more distribution than they normally would.”
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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TopDog Social Media has posted a new podcast on social media contests entitled Is Your Social Media Contest Breaking the Law (and thank you TopDog for chatting with me about social media contest laws and rules). Some of the topics discussed in TopDog’s new podcast include:
The 5 most common illegal contest mistakes by businesses running contests online and over social media; Apple’s restrictions on giving away iPads & iPhones; one mistake that cost a business $170,000 in fines; two major components to ensuring your social media contest is legal; some of the basic rules you legally need to include in any contest; some of the legalities surrounding the use of third party materials; a few ways to tell if your advertising may be false or misleading; what you can and can’t legally use information for that you collect in a contest; social networks with the most and least strict policies for contests; some of YouTube’s quirky rule about using entrant information; some of what Facebook expects you to say when you run a contest; how Quebec’s strict rules could provide an opportunity for businesses; and thinking about whether your social media contest is in fact an “illegal lottery”.
April 12, 2014
I recently read remarks delivered by European Commission competition head Joaquin Almunia in Brussels on the topic of cartel enforcement (see: Fighting against cartels: A priority for the present and for the future). He discussed, among other things, recent European cartel cases, fines achieved, cartels in innovation and fast moving markets and recent detection strategies (see highlights at the bottom of this post).
April 10, 2014
Parties in price-fixing, market division and other competition/antitrust cartels can go to some fairly extensive lengths to conceal agreements.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
