January 23, 2015
Guest post by Mark Nicholson, Kelley McKinnon,
Davit Akman & Zoe Pallare (Gowlings)
On Jan. 22, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada released the long anticipated decision in Tervita Corp. v. Canada (Commissioner of Competition) in which it considered, for the first time, the analytical framework for prevention of competition cases and the statutory efficiency defence.
December 14, 2014
Earlier today I saw with some interest that a Canadian plaintiff lawyers’ firm has commenced competition class proceedings against the LCBO and the Beer Store (and the Beer Store’s parents) for alleged conspiracy conduct under the Competition Act (Competition Act), among other claims. The case relates to claims that the provincially operated LCBO and Beer Store entered into an agreement to allocate the types of beer products sold (allegedly for the LCBO to only sell six-packs with the Beer Store retailing larger cases).
December 9, 2014
Earlier today, Canada’s Minister of Industry James Moore announced that the Federal Government had tabled a new bill (the Price Transparency Act (Bill C-49)) in Parliament for first reading, which would amend the federal Competition Act (the “Act”) to address so-called “unjustified” Canada/U.S. price discrimination.
November 25, 2014
Misleading advertising is squarely part of Canadian competition law. Violation of the Competition Act’s civil or criminal misleading advertising provisions can also lead to significant liability for companies or individuals. As a recent reminder of this, the Competition Bureau has announced that water heater supplier National Home Services (National) has agreed to pay a $7 million penalty for alleged false or misleading claims made by its sales agents.
November 25, 2014
Earlier today, the Competition Bureau launched a new advocacy publication entitled The Competition Advocate. In this welcome new initiative, by the Bureau’s also new Competition Promotion Branch, it joins other antitrust agency advocacy publications including the U.S. FTC’s Competition Matters blog.
November 13, 2014
Performance claims remain a popular advertising strategy for many brands. These can include statements about a product’s speed, reliability or other performance. Performance claims in Canada, however, are subject to both the “general misleading advertising” sections of the Competition Act (Act) and a stand-alone performance claims provision (section 74.01(1)(b) of the Act).
November 11, 2014
Guest post by Shannon Harell
(Information Law Group)
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has been very active in its enforcement efforts in the past couple of months. In addition to other actions which we have blogged about, the FTC recently sent dozens of warning letters to advertisers in two separate efforts. In September, the FTC sent letters admonishing companies for their failure to make adequate disclosures in an effort dubbed “Operation Full Disclosure.” Then, in October, the FTC sent letters to companies for their potentially misleading “oxo degradable” claims in violation of the FTC’s Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (or “Green Guides”).
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
