April 3, 2020
The global spread of COVID-19 has had significant impacts in most major areas of law, including Canadian competition and advertising law.
March 6, 2020
Practical Law Canada Competition has published a New Legal Update, which discusses the Competition Bureau’s new Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest, including the following key current Competition Bureau advertising enforcement priorities: false or misleading data privacy claims, weight loss claims and online pricing and drip pricing. All of these enforcement priorities are consistent with the Bureau’s current focus on the digital economy. Below is an excerpt with a link to the full Update.
February 27, 2020
In my new Canadian Lawyer Column, I take a bit of a light-hearted tiptoe through recent drip-pricing cases enforced by the Competition Bureau, including the announcement on February 13, 2020 that StubHub agreed to pay $1.3 million for allegedly violating the misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act by failing to adequately disclose the full price of sports and entertainment tickets upfront. For my full column, see: here.
February 14, 2020
The Competition Bureau’s (Bureau) top priority for enforcement and advocacy is currently the digital economy (see, for example, here, here, here, here and here). And for online marketing practices, false or misleading prices, including drip-pricing (i.e., where additional fees for an online purchase are only disclosed later or at the end of the check-out process), is top of its list.
February 13, 2020
Practical Law Canada, Competition has published a new Legal Update, which discusses the Competition Bureau’s new Strategic Vision report, which was released on February 11, 2020. The Bureau’s new Strategic Vision report focuses on the digital economy, including competition law issues in relation to the telecommunications, financial services, online marketing and infrastructure sectors.
February 1, 2020
A common question we receive, particularly from distributors and retailers, is whether refusals to sell or deal are illegal under Canada’s Competition Act. This question often arises in the context of a small to medium distributor or retailer who has been terminated from supply from a large brand or cannot obtain supply from a leading brand they want to distribute or sell. In Canada, in general, suppliers are free to determine whom to supply to and on what terms. Manufacturers and suppliers can also generally allocate exclusive sales or distribution territories (or impose re-sale restrictions on distributors or retailers). For more information, see Refusal to Deal.
January 24, 2020
In an interesting speech on January 22, 2020 by the Deputy Commissioner of Competition, Deceptive Marketing Practices Directorate, the Competition Bureau (Bureau) outlined its current digital marketing enforcement priorities (see: Honest Advertising in the Digital Age).
January 17, 2020
In an interesting and rather novel case, the Competition Bureau (Bureau) is reportedly investigating whether three major Canadian political parties (the Liberal, Conservative and NDP parties) violated the Competition Act in relation to their collection and use of Canadians’ personal information.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
