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Byline: JEFFREY JONES; Staff Western Canadian business groups have launched a constitutional challenge against Ottawa's anti-greenwashing provisions, claiming they infringe on corporations' freedom of speech by quashing debate on environmental [...]

Byline: JEFFREY JONES; Staff Western Canadian business groups have launched a constitutional challenge against Ottawa's anti-greenwashing provisions, claiming they infringe on corporations' freedom of speech by quashing debate on environmental [...]

Environmental sustainability has become a priority for consumers, investors, and governments alike, leading to a surge in eco-friendly marketing and, in some cases, greenwashing - claims that paint products or [...]

On December 23, 2024, the Competition Bureau (the 'Bureau') released for public comment draft enforcement guidelines ('Draft Guidelines') concerning environmental or 'green' claims. This bulletin discusses the key elements of [...]

On December 23, 2024, the Competition Bureau (Bureau) published updated guidelines (the Draft Guidelines) with respect to the application of Canada's new Competition Act (CA) greenwashing provisions enacted last June. [...]

In 2022, the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) launched a study of grocery store competition in Canada and released its report in June 2023, concluding that 'Canada Needs More Grocery Competition.' [...]

Limiting competition can be advantageous for businesses. Competitors are prevented from entering the same geographical area and offering identical products and services. This assurance encourages businesses to invest confidently in [...]

Introduced at a time of proposed changes to securities laws and increased investor-driven demands to identify, disclose and monitor climate and sustainability risks, which we write about separately in our [...]

The federal government has significantly enhanced the Canadian approach to both competition law and foreign investment, evidencing a growing focus on enforcement of Canada's competition laws and on national security [...]

Significant amendments to the Competition Act (Act) over the last two years have dramatically altered the landscape for merger review in Canada. With these changes, businesses contemplating a potential merger [...]

Recent Competition Bureau Guidance on the Amendments to Canada's Competition Act For those keeping score at home, the Canadian Competition Act has gone through three rounds of substantial amendments over [...]

Over the last five years, there has been a rising concern by consumers about the cost of goods and services linked to the transportation industry. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply [...]

As we have discussed in a prior bulletin and a more detailed analysis, Canada's Competition Act was recently amended to both (i) establish a new, more expansive framework for challenging [...]

Canada's economic landscape continues to evolve, and with it, the legal framework designed to promote fair competition. In June 2024, significant amendments to the Competition Act, RSC 1985, c C-34 [...]

Two years ago, Cineplex started charging some moviegoers $1.50 extra to buy a ticket online. The Competition Bureau saw deceptive marketing. The bureau for decades was an afterthought. Today it [...]

Byline: Jeffrey Jones; Staff Contentious changes to the federal Competition Act aimed at preventing corporate greenwashing leave lingering risks for investors of falling victim to false or exaggerated environmental claims, [...]

Byline: PRESTON MANNING Former leader of the Reform Party of Canada and a former leader of the Opposition Under Justin Trudeau, federal-provincial relations are at an all-time low. This is [...]

Canada's Competition Tribunal (Tribunal) recently released its reasons in the first contested case to apply the amended misleading representations provisions of the Competition Act (Act). The Tribunal's decision assessed online [...]

The Competition Tribunal released its reasons in Commissioner v. Cineplex on October 3, 2024. It is the first decision under the Competition Act's 'drip pricing' misleading advertising provision, which was [...]

Welcome to the October issue of Blakes Competitive Edge, a monthly publication of the Blakes Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group. Blakes Competitive Edge provides an overview of recent developments [...]

Bill C-59, The Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023 (Bill C-59) took effect on June 20, 2024, bringing significant changes to the Competition Act, including new explicit provisions targeting misleading [...]

Advertising and marketing has been the subject of increased regulatory scrutiny following amendments made to the Competition Act within the last three years. Most notable among these changes are the [...]

Changes to the Competition Act In our November 29, 2023 News ReLease entitled, 'Are Exclusive Covenants About to Become Extinct?', we reported on changes to the federal Competition Act ('Act'). [...]

In August, the Federal Trade Commission (the 'FTC'), the federal U.S. agency equivalent to Canada's Competition Bureau, issued a rule (the 'Rule') to combat fake reviews and testimonials. The Rule [...]

The Competition Bureau's public consultation process in connection with new rules related to property controls on certain exclusivity and restrictive use provisions ends on October 7, 2024, and landlords and [...]

Introduction This bulletin is the third in our subject-matter specific series explained in the article: 'A new playing field: Summarizing sweeping reforms to the Canadian Competition Act', which summarizes key [...]

In Canada, advertising campaigns that feature 'green' environmental claims are widely used to appeal to consumers' growing concern for the environment and demand for companies to establish environmentally friendly practices. [...]

Photo manipulation or digitally altering a photo is a common industry practice that transforms an image using various techniques-­these may involve retouching methods or even artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Adjusting [...]

In the third article of our series on the changes to the Competition Act following our overview bulletin, and our greenwashing bulletin, we discuss the impact of the recent amendments [...]

Changes to the Competition Act In the landscape of Canadian commerce, maintaining fair competition is important to fostering economic growth and protecting consumer interests. Through two pieces of legislation in [...]

On June 20, 2024, Bill C-59 received Royal Assent. Bill C-59 introduced a third round of amendments to the Competition Act in a two-year period, which altogether have fundamentally transformed [...]

The Competition Bureau (the 'Bureau') recently published interim guidance (the 'Guidance') outlining its preliminary enforcement approach to competitor property controls under the Competition Act (the 'Act'). The Guidance was published [...]

Following recent amendments to the Competition Act (the 'Act'),1 the Competition Bureau (the 'Bureau') released preliminary property control guidelines ('PPCGs') describing its planned enforcement approach for 'property controls' in commercial [...]

The changes to Canada's competition law over the last few years have been described as 'generational.' Perhaps the most notable changes are the new incentives for the private enforcement of [...]

On July 26, 2024, JAMP Pharma Corporation ('JAMP') - a Canadian generic/biosimilar pharmaceutical company - applied for leave to the Competition Tribunal (the 'Tribunal') to bring an application under the [...]

On June 20, 2024, the Canadian federal government enacted Bill C-59, amending the Competition Act (the 'Act') by granting royal assent to Bill C-59. Most of the amendments are now [...]

On June 20, 2024, the Government of Canada passed Bill C-59 amending certain provisions in the Competition Act (the 'Act'). In particular, in an effort to protect consumers from misleading [...]

On June 20, 2024, the Government of Canada passed Bill C-59, amending certain provisions of the Competition Act (the 'Act'). New provisions were added to target greenwashing in an effort [...]

On June 20, 2024 the Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023 (the 'Economic Statement') received Royal Assent and became law. The Economic Statement includes amendments to the Competition Act (the [...]

Welcome to the August issue of Blakes Competitive Edge, a monthly publication of the Blakes Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group. Blakes Competitive Edge provides an overview of recent developments [...]

This blog was written with assistance from Summer Law Student Alex Woitas. As discussed in our previous post, 'generational' changes to the Competition Act (the 'Act') are now in force, [...]

A recent series of amendments to the Competition Act (the Act) represent some of the most important changes to Canadian competition law in almost 40 years. On September 21, 2023, [...]

In our previous Bennett Jones insight, we described several upcoming (and far-reaching) amendments to the Competition Act (the Act) introduced by the Government of Canada in 2023. The most recent [...]

Byline: JEFFREY JONES; Staff The Competition Bureau has published guidance on what might constitute corporate greenwashing as it begins consultations over how it will implement Ottawa's contentious new measures aimed [...]

Byline: JANIS SARRA Professor of law emerita at Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia We have been hearing much criticism of two amendments to [...]

Byline: EMMA GRANEY; Staff An oil sands industry group that scrubbed its website of all content in response to a new federal rule requiring truth in advertising was grossly overreacting, [...]

Unanimity on Parliament Hill is a rarity. Yet in late May, for the second time in six months, the House of Commons came together to support a final swath of [...]

Byline: GRANT BISHOP Calgary-based founder of KnightFork, which builds data-driven tools for carbon pricing and the energy transition A new 'greenwashing' rule hastily crammed into the Competition Act last week [...]

Byline: JEFFREY JONES; Staff Several Canadian oil companies and lobby groups have added disclaimers to their websites and socialmedia feeds - in one case, scrubbing all content - in response [...]

How should securities registrants approach the new Competition Act provisions on greenwashing? Securities industry participants are keenly aware of the regulatory risks and expectations around environmental, social and governance (ESG) [...]