Archive for the 'Associations' Category
May 21, 2023
On June 23, 2023, criminal amendments to the Competition Act will come into force. These amendments were enacted on June 23, 2022, as part of Bill C-19, the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No.1.
They introduced sweeping amendments to Canada’s federal Competition Act, including significant increases to the civil and criminal penalties, new prohibitions on drip pricing and expansion of private right of access to the Competition Tribunal for abuse of dominance, among other things. For more information, see: Sweeping Canadian Competition Act Amendments Passed.
May 15, 2023
Practical Law Canada Competition, of which I am Lawyer Editor, has published a new Legal Update that discusses the Competition Bureau’s new online Competition Compliance Portal, which replaces its former Corporate Compliance Programs Bulletin.
Below is an excerpt with a link to the full Legal Update.
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This Legal Update discusses the Competition Bureau’s (Bureau) new Compliance Portal, which updates its competition law compliance program guidance from its former Corporate Compliance Programs Bulletin. The Update discusses the Bureau’s new Compliance Portal, key changes from its former compliance program guidance and compliance implications for companies and other organizations that need to comply with Canadian competition laws.
May 3, 2023
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 argues that Canada has had a long history of concentration and monopolization in key sectors, including transportation, telecom and banking, and that legislative reform has for the most part resisted increasing competition.
April 21, 2023
On April 17, 2023, Canada’s Competition Bureau (Bureau) published its new Annual Plan (see: 2023-2024 Annual Plan: Driving Competition Forward For All Canadians).
March 28, 2023
Practical Law Canada Competition, of which I am Lawyer Editor, has published a new Legal Update that discusses the Competition Bureau’s submission to the Canadian government in response to the government’s public consultation on amendments to the Competition Act.
Below is an excerpt with a link to the full Legal Update.
March 25, 2023
CASL (FEDERAL ANTI-SPAM LAW)
COMPLIANCE PRECEDENTS AND CHECKLISTS
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Our compliance precedents and checklists are an excellent way to mitigate risk and avoid common CASL-related issues, including relating to express consent requests, sender identification information for CEMs, CASL-compliant unsubscribe mechanisms, business related exemptions and types of implied consent and documenting consent and scrubbing distribution lists. We also offer a template CASL corporate compliance program based on the Canadian CRTC’s CASL compliance program recommendations.
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COMMON CASL (CANADIAN ANTI-SPAM LAW) COMPLIANCE ERRORS:
RELYING ON OLD (AGGREGATED) MARKETING LISTS
Canada’s federal anti-spam legislation (CASL) came into force in 2014. Since then, marketers and their advisors have been working to comply with what remains a complex law with outstanding uncertainties in some key areas. In providing CASL advice to clients since CASL came into force, and even over the past several years, I have regularly seen some of the same compliance errors being repeatedly made.
In this regard, one of the most common CASL compliance errors I see are issues relating to relying on old and often aggregated (i.e., combined) marketing lists.
In this regard, it is not uncommon for clients to tell us that they are using an old (sometimes pre-CASL) distribution list and that they are not sure whether or how any express or implied consents were gathered. Commonly, such lists are not regularly reviewed or scrubbed of names where consent to send electronic messages no longer exists or a CASL exemption no longer applies.
March 16, 2023
On March 15, 2023, Canada’s federal Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced that it had launched a new competition law Compliance Portal (see: Consultation on new Compliance Portal).
February 20, 2023
On February 20, 2023, the Canadian Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced that it had obtained a court order (presumably an order under section 11 of the Competition Act) in relation to potential abuse of dominance conduct engaged in by a Quebec real estate board (the Quebec Professional Association for Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB)). See: Competition Bureau obtains court order to advance an investigation of competition in Quebec real estate services market. For more information about Bureau investigations and compulsory production orders, see: Competition Law Enforcement.