Archive for the 'News' Category
January 13, 2014
Earlier today, the German antitrust authority (the Bundeskartellamt) announced that $145 million in fines had been imposed against five beer manufacturers and seven individuals in a beer price-fixing case (see: First fines imposed in cartel proceedings against breweries).
January 10, 2014
Earlier today, Canada’s Federal Government announced the details of Canada’s next 2500 MHz spectrum auction (in April 2015) emphasizing its goal of achieving more competition in Canada’s wireless sector (see: Harper Government Announces New Measures to Benefit Canadian Wireless Consumers). The Government also issued a related Backgrounder and links, including homepage for the upcoming auction.
January 8, 2014
CANADIAN CONTEST RULES/PRECEDENTS
Do you need contest rules and forms for a Canadian contest/sweepstakes? I offer a selection of 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.
____________________
I spend a lot of time reading, advising on and blogging about misleading advertising (i.e., campaigns gone wrong) and contests. As such, it’s refreshing to see an effort to increase truth in advertising. In this regard, this interesting Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) contest for its new “Truth in Advertising Matters” campaign caught my eye. The ASC has launched a student competition (i.e., contest) to generate the creative for its new campaign, with scholarship prizes to be awarded and a $10,000 first prize.
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.
********************
These days, running a contest invariably means social media (or multiple social media) and typically Facebook and Twitter. So when I talk to clients about the promotions they have in mind, I often start (or almost start) the discussion with how they want to promote their contest.
January 7, 2014
In an interesting advocacy letter published yesterday, and reminiscent of parallel wireless competition issues in Canada (and also discussed in the letter), the American Antitrust Institute has urged the U.S. DoJ and FCC to oppose any potential Sprint/T-Mobile merger. Also somewhat reminiscent of Canada, the AAI argues, among other things, that the U.S. needs at least four major wireless players (and in the U.S. case, that T-Mobile has emerged as a maverick following the blocked AT&T/T-Mobile deal in 2011). I thought this was an interesting advocacy piece both in terms of its discussion of the U.S. wireless market and current parallels and discussion of similar issues in Canada: AAI Urges the DoJ and FCC to Prevent Emerging Wireless Competition From Being Smothered in the Cradle.
January 6, 2014
On December 4, 2013, the Federal Government announced that Canada’s new anti-spam legislation (CASL) would finally largely come into force on July 1, 2014 (with several transition periods for the unauthorized installation of computer program and private action provisions). The following is my updated summary of the impending CASL, including summaries of the consent, form and unsubscribe requirements (and legislative links and key resources).
January 4, 2014
Strategies for discouraging and enforcement against competition law cartels (e.g., price-fixing, market allocation, bid-rigging and other illegal agreements between competitors) have ranged from promoting compliance programs to competition agency immunity and leniency programs to increasing cartel penalties to deter anti-competitive agreements that interrupt the natural operation of markets. Price-fixing and other cartel agreements however, it seems from recent enforcement agency statistics both in Canada and elsewhere, continue to flourish despite such strategies. Addressing this issue, this interesting new article by Constantine Cannon (entitled Bring in the Whistleblowers and Pay Them) queries whether paying corporate whistleblowers for disclosing illegal cartel activities makes more sense than, for example, incentivizing parties to report and cooperate with authorities with the promise of immunity or leniency. Abstract:
January 3, 2014
Earlier today, the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA) published a new edition of its CCCA Magazine. Included is a quite good article on competition law compliance entitled “Competition law: How to stay out of trouble” (sub-title: “How a robust antitrust compliance program can keep your company out of trouble”).
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
