Archive for the 'Publications' Category
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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January 4, 2013
On January 4, 2013, Industry Canada issued revised draft regulations (Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations) for Canada’s upcoming anti-spam legislation (“CASL”). The revised regulations will be subject to comment until February 4, 2013 and generally clarify certain key CASL definitions and exceptions and add some new exceptions. Some of the key aspects of the new draft regulations include:
December 28, 2012
I am pleased to be a panelist for an upcoming Canadian/U.S. advertising law webinar hosted by Strafford on January 8, 2013: Key Canadian Advertising and Competition Law Compliance Strategies.
Description
The Canadian Competition Act contains civil and criminal prohibitions on misleading representations and regulates specific types of advertising and marketing practices. Violations can lead to “administrative monetary penalties” of up to $10 million and court orders to cease conduct and compensate consumers (restitution).
The Competition Bureau has ramped up enforcement efforts. Recent Bureau and private litigation challenges include price and performance claims, use of disclaimers and the application and scope of the “general impression test”. Developments include increased sectoral regulation and federal anti-spam legislation.
To effectively minimize legal risk, marketers and advertisers in Canada need to know the basic rules that apply to price and performance claims, sales and other promotions (including contests), disclaimers, electronic marketing and the enforcement agencies’ evolving approach to new technologies.
Listen as our panel of Canadian and U.S. attorneys provide a guide to important competition compliance rules for counsel to companies and associations conducting advertising and marketing operations in Canada. Panelists will review current litigation and Competition Bureau enforcement developments and provide practical compliance guidelines to avoid triggering allegations of misleading representations.
The panel will review these and other key questions: what types of representations are currently under heavy scrutiny by the Competition Bureau?; how should marketers prepare for the federal anti-spam legislation expected in 2013?; what kinds of safeguards are needed to ensure that price, performance or comparative claims or the use of disclaimers do not violate the Competition Act?
December 21, 2012
The American Bar Association today published the December edition of The Antitrust Source. This edition includes articles on:
“FTC Monetary Remedies and the Limits of Antitrust”; “Deciphering the Compliance Obligations Around the EU’s Cookie Directive”; “Maximizing Efficiencies: Getting Credit Where Credit is Due”; “An Overview of the FTC’s New and Improved Green Guides”; and a book review of The Economics of Collusion – Cartels and Bidding Rings.
December 20, 2012
The Asian Competition Forum has posted the papers from its recent 8th Annual Asian Competition Law Conference (2012). In a rather impressive showing, contributions relating to China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and others include papers and presentations on:
Setting Up a New Competition Regime: the Indian Experience
The Tasks and Challenges of Enforcing the Hong Kong Competition Ordinance
The Role of the Media in Building a Competition Culture
Developing a Culture of Competition
Priority Setting in Competition Law – the Australian Experience
Establishing Sound Enforcement Processes in China
December 10, 2012
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a very interesting new report on kids’ apps and privacy entitled: Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade (see: here and here) (and announced new “nonpublic” related investigations in the mobile app industry). The FTC’s new report examines the privacy disclosures and practices in connection with kids’ apps in the Google Play and Apple App stores and is the FTC’s second kids’ mobile apps survey.
In announcing the release of its new report, the FTC said:
“Since FTC staff’s first survey of kids’ mobile apps in 2011, staff found little progress toward giving parents the information they need to determine what data is being collected from their children, how it is being shared, or who will have access to it. The report also finds that many of the apps surveyed included interactive features, such as connecting to social media, and sent information from the mobile device to ad networks, analytics companies, or other third parties, without disclosing these practices to parents.
While we think most companies have the best intentions when it comes protecting kids’ privacy, we haven’t seen any progress when it comes to making sure parents have the information they need to make informed choices about apps for their kids. In fact, our study shows that kids’ apps siphon an alarming amount of information from mobile devices without disclosing this fact to parents. … All of the companies in the mobile app space, especially the gatekeepers of the app stores, need to do a better job. We’ll do another survey in the future and we will expect to see improvement.”
According to the FTC, most kids’ apps it reviewed failed to disclose any information about the data being collected and commonly shared information with 3rd parties (including device ID, geolocation or phone numbers) without adequate disclosure. Some of the other key findings from the FTC’s new kids’ app report include:
1. Parents are not being provided with information about what data an app collects, who will have access to that data, and how it will be used. Only 20 percent of the apps staff reviewed disclosed any information about the app’s privacy practices.
2. Many apps (nearly 60 percent of the apps surveyed) are transmitting information from a users’ device back to the app developer or, more commonly, to an advertising network, analytics company, or other third party.
December 8, 2012
The American Antitrust Institute (aai) has posted the materials from its recent 6th Annual Private Antitrust Enforcement Conference in Washington. The materials include podcasts and downloadable PDF versions of papers presented on the following topics: the AAI Jury Instruction Project, Employment Antitrust Litigation, Trends in Use of Truncated or “Quick Look” Analysis, Litigation in Regulated Industries and Class Action Developments.
For more information and copies of the materials see: 6th Annual Private Anitrust Enforcement Conference.
December 6, 2012
I am always interested in innovation and trends, both in marketing generally and in relation to my own practice. Lawyers can, well, be rather slow to embrace change. In this regard, I’ve been seeing a continued trend toward video, both on the web generally – for example in this interesting Globe note this morning: Need more proof of the power of video on the web? Here it is – as well as with my own clients, colleagues (well some of them at least) and more recently enforcement agencies in Canada and Internationally.
Following this trend, several enforcement agencies using video have caught my eye including this short (but good) Consumer Protection BC video on expiry dates and gift cards this morning: A Consumer Question About Gift Cards and a video contest being used by the RCMP to promote drug prevention awareness.
These Canadian examples of enforcers using video also reminded me of the recent excellent cartel compliance video by the Australian ACCC – The Marker – a short film produced by the ACC to illustrate the potentially significant effects that involvement in a cartel can have on individuals and businesses (see: ACCC gets on the front foot with cartels film ‘The Marker’) and this series of price-fixing videos uploaded to YouTube by the Singapore Competition Commission – see: here.
It seems to me this is a good trend for lawyers and enforcers and that we’ll probably see a lot more like them down the road.
For more on gift card, contest and cartel laws in Canada see: Gift Cards, Contests and Cartels.
December 6, 2012
The American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust has published its Fall 2012 edition of Antitrust Magazine, which includes articles on:
Antitrust Litigation: What’s Changed in Twenty-Five Years (W. Kolasky), Merger Policy Twenty-Five Years Later: Unilateral Effects Move to the Forefront (A.R. Dick), Reflections on Cartel Enforcement (I. Simmons, K.R. O’Rourke), Time for a Global ‘One-Stop-Shop’ for Leniency Markers (J.M. Taladay), The ISO Litigation Legacy of Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services (J.I. Gleklen), Crossing the Streams of Price and Promotion Under the Robinson-Patman Act (R.M. Steuer), The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same: Applying Section 5 to Emerging Marketing Practices (L.J. Fales, E.T. Berge), Antitrust in No One’s World (E.M. Fox), From Activity to Accomplishment: Competition Law and Performance Measure (W.E. Kovacic), Economics and Competition Law: A Two-Sided Market? (J. Jayaratne, J.A. Ordover), Thinking Fast, Free, and Fashionable: Competition and Consumer Protection in a Mobile Internet World (H.C. Su) and When Does Buyer Power Become Monopsony Pricing? (J.D. Shively).
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
