Advertising in Canada is highly regulated and complying with Canadian advertising laws can be challenging for even the most established businesses and agencies. We help clients practically navigate Canada’s advertising and marketing laws in relation to print, online, new media, social media, e-mail marketing and electronic marketing.

 

Our services include legal advice in relation to the general civil and criminal misleading advertising provisions of the federal Competition Act, competition law compliance programs, anti-spam law (CASL), Competition Bureau and other complaints and investigations, seeking Competition Bureau advisory opinions, Internet, new media and social media advertising and marketing, provincial consumer protection legislation, contests/sweepstakes and sales and other promotions.

Electronic marketing and communications, including by e-mail, SMS, social media and other means, is common for companies, associations and other organizations. However, sending commercial electronic messages in Canada is regulated by CASL (Canadian anti-spam law), which includes specific requirements for consent, sender identification information, unsubscribe mechanisms and documenting consent.

 

We regularly help our clients with their marketing campaigns, subscription management and electronic message content to mitigate risk under CASL. Our services include legal advice and opinions, precedents and checklists to comply with CASL and CASL compliance programs and documenting consent.

 

Proactive risk mitigation is the best line of defence against legal liability. We offer competition law, advertising law and CASL (Canadian anti-spam law) compliance and educational services for public and private companies, trade and professional associations, not-for-profit organizations and advertising and marketing agencies.

 

Our compliance services include compliance audits, compliance programs and seminars, drafting policies and guidelines and providing competition, advertising and CASL related legal advice. We also regularly provide guidelines and checklists to clients to help them comply with specific types of initiatives (e.g., surveys/benchmarking, board meetings, information exchanges involving competitors, electronic marketing and advertising and joint ventures and other competitor collaborations).

Promotional contests are a popular method to build brand awareness and increase sales. In Canada, contest law is primarily governed by the federal Competition Act and the Criminal Code. Other laws that can apply include CASL (Canadian anti-spam law), privacy law and intellectual property law.

 

We regularly act for domestic and international companies and other organizations operating contests in Canada. We also routinely coordinate with U.S. and Quebec counsel to help our clients with Canadian and North America wide contests. Our services include drafting short and long contest rules, winner releases, reviewing draft creative materials for advertising law compliance and providing Canadian contest law advice for random draw contests, skill contests and trip contests.

Trade and professional associations can and often do serve many legitimate purposes, including promoting common interests to the public, lobbying and advocacy, research, member education and promoting and improving product standards. However, because these trade and professional association activities commonly involve interacting with direct and prospective competitors, they can also in some cases raise competition law concerns under the federal Competition Act.

 

Our services for trade and professional associations include competition law compliance programs, competition law compliance seminars and talks for association executives and directors, audits and compliance reviews of association activities, federal Competition Act advice and opinions, vetting trade association meetings, conventions and communications, reviewing association rules, bylaws, policies, standards and codes of conduct, filing and defending against Competition Bureau complaints and investigations and assisting associations with marketplace and competitor issues.