Friday, March 21, 2025
By Colin Isaacs
Industry compliance seems to be slow getting off the ground with a simple but important piece of environmental law affecting environmental claims of all kinds. This may be because the amendment was buried in a complex piece of legislation called the Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, which came into effect when given Royal Assent on June 20, 2024.
The Competition Bureau Canada, which is responsible for the new legislation, issued a draft guidance document for public consultation on December 23rd 2024, a date guaranteed not to achieve much stakeholder attention. When finalized the guidance document will help affected businesses, of which there any many, understand how the Bureau intends to enforce the law but will not actually change the law. As there is no guarantee of an additional phase-in period for the new provisions, business should probably be moving in the direction of lawfulness even as the Bureau finishes its consultation.
The new law, in brief, prohibits public statements, warranties or guarantee of a product=s benefits for protecting or restoring the environment or mitigating the environmental, social and ecological causes or effects of climate change (“environmental benefit of a product”) that is not based on adequate and proper testing. This provision applies where the purpose of making the representation is the promotion of a product, including a service or any other business interest. Presumably this includes brand advertising as well as label claims on a product.
Some in the petroleum industry have already taken this new legislation seriously by making changes to their advertising but other industries, such as consumer and household products, continue to make some environmental claims which are of dubious accuracy or which, because of their nature, are not susceptible to “proper testing.” When the Competition Bureau finally gets around to implementing its enforcement regime there will almost certainly be plenty of brand owners for it, or public complainants, to pursue.
The Competition Bureau does provide several guidance documents which may be helpful to business. One, still in draft but unlikely to be changed very much, was issued on December 23rd 2024 and is entitled Environmental claims and the Competition Act. It can be found here.
The public consultation on this document ends on February 28th, 2025.
Another helpful document, more for those who are already familiar with most of the previous regulatory regime for environmental labelling, is from the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and is entitled False advertising and greenwashing: Bill C‑59 changes to Competition Act. This can be found here.
Colin Isaacs is a chemist with practical experience in administration, municipal council, the Ontario Legislature, a major environmental group, and, for the past three decades, as an adviser to business and government. He is one of the pioneers in promoting the concept of sustainable development for business in Canada and has written extensively on the topic in the popular press and for environment and business platforms.
Featured image credit: Getty Images
