Is misleading advertising a criminal offence or a civil matter?
Misleading advertising may also be pursued by the Competition Bureau as a civil or criminal matter. In this regard, the Bureau has issued an Information Bulletin (Misleading Representations and Deceptive Marketing Practices – Choice of Criminal or Civil Track under the Competition Act) that sets out when it is likely to proceed on the criminal as opposed to the civil track for misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices. In general, the Bureau’s Information Bulletin states that in most instances the civil track will be followed unless certain criteria are satisfied as follows: (i) there is clear and compelling evidence suggesting that the accused knowingly or recklessly made a false or misleading representation to the public and (ii) a criminal prosecution would be in the public interest. In making the public interest determination, the Bureau sets out a number of factors that include: (i) whether there was substantial harm to consumers that could not adequately be dea
