This Advisory was developed by Ad Standards to provide guidance to the advertising industry to help ensure that advertising for products or services as “Made in Canada”, “Proudly Canadian” or with a call to action to “Buy Canadian” complies with the provisions of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards (the “Code”).
It is worth noting that specific rules apply to food products, which must comply with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s guidelines for Product of Canada and Made in Canada claims.
Background
The Competition Bureau published an Enforcement Guideline in 2009 detailing how it applies the prohibition against false and misleading claims under the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act and the Textile Labelling Act to ‘Made in Canada’ and ‘Product of Canada’ claim. Briefly, the Competition Bureau requires that “Product of Canada” claims be limited to use on products where all or virtually all (98%) of the content is Canadian, whereas “Made in Canada” claims must meet a 51% threshold of Canadian content, but should be accompanied by a qualifying statement indicating that the product contains imported content. In evaluating the content as Canadian, the Competition Bureau will look at the total direct costs of producing or manufacturing the good. In either case, the last substantial transformation of the product must have occurred in Canada.
As with all claims, the Bureau’s guidelines provides a reminder to consider the general impression, which will include examining the visual or audio elements in addition to the actual language of the claim. In fact, pictorial representations alone may be sufficient to be considered a “Made in Canada” claim.
To read the application of the code and the full advisory, please visit Ad Standards website
Read the Full Advisory