CANADA Law and Practice Contributed by: Martha Harrison, Nikiforos Latrou, Eugenia (Evie) Bouras and Marissa Caldwell, McCarthy Tétrault
1. Legal Framework and Regulatory Bodies 1.1 Primary Laws and Regulation Advertising in Canada is regulated under both federal and provincial jurisdictions. At the federal level, the Competition Act is the predominant statute governing advertising, which prohibits false or misleading rep - resentations and deceptive marketing practices. This includes claims about product performance, pricing and endorsements. Additional federal laws such as the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, the Food and Drugs Act and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation regulate specific aspects of advertising, including health claims, packaging and electronic communi - cations. In Québec, the Charter of the French Lan - guage mandates that advertising be predominantly in French, adding a linguistic layer of compliance for businesses operating in the province. At the provincial level, each province and territory enforces its own Consumer Protection Act, which governs advertising and marketing practices within its jurisdiction. These laws typically address unfair practices, misrepresentations and consumer rights in the context of transactions with merchants or retailers. It should be noted that Québec’s consumer protection laws offer more robust safeguards for consumers than those found in other provinces. In addition to statutory frameworks, Ad Standards Canada is Canada’s national, not-for-profit advertis - ing self-regulatory body. It administers the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards (the “Code”), which sets out the criteria for acceptable advertising across all media (except political advertising, and packaging and labelling). 1.2 Enforcement and Regulatory Authorities At the federal level, the primary regulator is the Com - petition Bureau, which enforces the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, the Textile Labelling Act and the Precious Metals Mark - ing Act. The Competition Bureau possesses broad investigative powers, and its mandate covers both criminal offences (such as price-fixing) and civil mat - ters (such as abuse of dominance and misleading advertisements). Remedies available to the Competi -
tion Bureau include voluntary compliance measures, significant administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) and private rights of action allowing individuals and businesses to seek damages before the Competi - tion Tribunal. The AMPs under the Competition Act can now be up to three times the value of the benefit derived from the deception or, if this cannot be rea - sonably determined, up to 3% of a company’s annual worldwide gross revenues. Provincially and territorially, consumer protection agencies oversee advertising compliance within their respective jurisdictions. These agencies enforce local consumer protection laws that address areas such as transactions between merchants and consumers, and various commercial issues such as credit disclosures, pricing transparency, warranties, unsolicited goods and promotional practices (eg, discounts, renew - als, negative option, bait and switch). The provincial regulators can pursue investigations, issue warnings, recommend prosecution and, in certain provinces, issue administrative monetary penalties. For exam - ple, in Québec, the provincial regulator known as the Office de la protection du consommateur mandates that advertising must be in French and prohibits mis - leading representations and unfair business practic - es; it can issue AMPs in the amount of CAD3,500 for corporations – each day the violation continues may constitute a new violation for which another AMP may be issued. In addition to these regulators, the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) plays a role in enforcing the Canadian Anti- Spam Legislation, which governs commercial elec - tronic messages and prohibits misleading represen - tations in digital advertising and the transmission of commercial electronic messages without consent. Violations can result in significant fines and reputa - tional damage. The CRTC works in co-ordination with the Competition Bureau to ensure compliance across digital platforms. Further, there are government regulators for various product sectors (eg, food, alcohol, natural health products, cosmetics, medical devices and toys) that generally prohibit false or misleading representations
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