Labelling Claims

To Whom Does This Apply?

The Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act applies to any person who is a retailer, manufacturer, processor or producer of a product, or a person who is engaged in the business of importing, packing or selling any product.

The Textile Labelling Actapplies to any person who manufactures, processes, finishes, imports or sells consumer textile articles.

The Precious Metals Marking Act applies to any person who manufactures, imports or sells articles made in whole or in part of gold, silver, platinum or palladium.

Summary

The Competition Act is a federal law governing most business conduct in Canada. It contains both criminal and civil provisions aimed at preventing anti-competitive practices in the marketplace.

Its purpose is to maintain and encourage competition in Canada in order to:

• promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy;
• expand opportunities for Canadian participation in world markets while at the same time recognizing the role of foreign competition in Canada;
• ensure that small and medium enterprises have an equitable opportunity to participate in the Canadian economy;
• provide consumers with competitive prices and product choices.

In addition, the more specific laws were enacted to ensure that:

• false or misleading information does not appear on product labels;
• products conform with labelling claims, such as net quantity, composition, type, performance, function, origin or method of manufacture;
• labelling claims are supportable and qualified so that the consumer is aware of the conditions under which the claims are valid.

DISCLAIMER
Information contained in this section is of a general nature only and is not intended to constitute advice for any specific fact situation. For particular questions, the users are invited to contact their lawyer. For additional information, see contact(s) listed below.

New Brunswick Contact(s):
See National Contact.