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December 19, 2018

My new Canadian Lawyer column has been posted.  It’s a bit of a light hearted tiptoe through the slightly eccentric world of lawyer Christmas, er, holiday cards: Holiday cards, marketing & lawyers.  Wishing all my clients and colleagues a safe and happy holiday season!

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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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December 4, 2018

On December 3, 2018, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a summary of its anti-spam legislation (CASL) enforcement over the past six months (from April 1, 2018 to September 30, 2018) (Enforcement Highlights).  See: Enforcing Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL): Actions Carried Out by the CRTC Between April 1, 2018 and September 30, 2018.  While CASLhas been in force now for more than four years, the CRTC’s Enforcement Highlights provides a useful snapshot of the CRTC’s CASL enforcement priorities.  It is also a useful guide for electronic marketers to key areas of potential anti-spam law related risk.  For an overview of CASL, see: Anti-Spam (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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November 7, 2018

On November 5, 2018, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued new guidelines on its enforcement approach in relation to aiding and inducing violations of Canada’s federal anti-spam legislation (CASL) (Compliance and Enforcement Information Bulletin CRTC 2018-415).  Importantly, CASL applies not only to those that, for example, send unsolicited electronic messages without complying with CASL’s consent, identification and unsubscribe requirements, but also to anyone that aids, induces, procures any act that violates CASL (CASL, section 9).

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June 5, 2018

The Competition Bureau (Bureau) has published the fourth volume of its Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest (Marketing Digest), which provides guidance from the Bureau on influencer marketing, “Made in Canada” claims and savings claims (see Bureau releases Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest Volume 4).

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May 27, 2018

Testimonials and endorsements (i.e., where a brand uses an expert, celebrity or other person to endorse their product) are both increasingly popular and increasingly being scrutinized by regulators, including the Canadian Competition Bureau (Bureau) and U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  While the Competition Act, which is the primary legislation governing misleading advertising in Canada, does not contain any specific provisions relating to, for example, the disclosure of material connections, testimonials/endorsements that are false or misleading can nonetheless violate the Act.

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CANADIAN CONTEST RULES/PRECEDENTS

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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As a competition and advertising lawyer, I work on many promotional contests for a wide range of clients – from large consumer products firms, to agencies, to start-ups and individuals that want to promote their brands in a perennially successful way: contests.  It’s a bit of a quirky area of law, but one thing is certain – both brands and consumers love them.  While contests can vary considerably depending on the type of promotion, where the contest will be run and how it will be promoted, in Canada there are a few important considerations that advertisers and the agencies and counsel helping them need to think about.

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Are you planning to run a promotional contest (i.e., sweepstakes) in Canada and need contest rules and forms? We can help. We offer a variety of template contest rules and forms for running popular types of contests in Canada.

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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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May 2, 2018

On May 1, 2018, the CRTC announced that two ticket resale companies, 9118-9076 Quebec Inc. and 9310-6359 Quebec Inc. doing business as 514-BILLETS, agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty for allegedly violating Canada’s federal anti-spam legislation (CASL) by sending text messages without consent (see 514-BILLETS to pay $100,000 for allegedly violating Canada’s anti-spam law).  In particular, 514-BILLETS allegedly sent text messages to recipients without recipients’ consent, identifying the sender or including contact information to contact the sender.

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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.