Competition Bureau

News & Resources > News room > Backgrounders > Project FairWeb

Tools

• Enquiries & Complaints
• FAQs

Related topics

• About the Acts
• Fees & Service Standards

Resources

• Publications
• Links
• In the News

Project FairWeb

Project FairWeb is the Competition Bureau's first dedicated Internet surveillance and enforcement program aimed at combatting misleading and deceptive advertising found on the Internet.

The Internet is now a vast area of commerce, and as consumers, Canadians shop for products and carry out transactions on a daily basis through the Web. While many businesses promote their products in an honest and forthright manner, the opportunity exists for others to promote products using misleading claims either on their Web sites or through e-mail. Project FairWeb is the Bureau's response to this problem.

Through Project FairWeb, Bureau officers conduct Internet sweeps on a regular basis and identify potentially problematic sites which are then analysed for misleading content under the misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices provisions of the Competition Act. Notices are then sent to the owners of selected Web sites informing them that certain claims used for the promotion of their products could raise issues under the Act and that they are obliged to have adequate and proper tests available to support such claims. Furthermore, under the general provisions of the Act, such claims must be true. In most cases, businesses are invited to voluntarily alter their Web sites if they are not in possession of proper tests to support their claims. In any event, the Bureau reserves the right to request substantiation of such claims.

Launched in April 2004, FairWeb's initial focus has been on misleading and unsubstantiated claims relating to bogus weight-loss products. These unsubstantiated claims account for a large proportion of Internet health fraud, targeting particularly vulnerable consumers - the overweight or obese who are desperate to find a solution to their weight problems.

To date, close to 300 questionable Web sites have been identified through the Bureau's Internet sweeps. Of those sites, notices were sent to the most problematic; over 80% of these businesses have either removed the suspect performance claims from their sites or have expressed an intent to comply with the Act. When businesses do not respond to the Bureau's concerns, enforcement action may be considered, including contested court proceedings.