Canada: Mitigating Risks And Staying Compliant While Running A Successful Online Contest
Last Updated: July 13 2012
Article by William Hearn

The Canadian Institute's Course on Managing Legal Risks in Running Online Contests

This presentation by Bill Hearn and Darren Kirkwood discusses the laws, enforcement practices and industry guidelines regulating all contests (including those under the Criminal Code, Competition Act and Quebec's special contest laws). It addresses the special considerations that arise in contests for kids and teens and when contests involve special products such as liquor and NHL tickets.

Hearn and Kirkwood also explain how to mitigate special risks in the online environment (including compliance risks and the Competition Bureau's enforcement position on applying the Competition Act to the Internet, user generated content and intellectual property and trade defamation risk, personal information and privacy law risk, Canada's new anti-spam law and refer-a-friend risk, cheaters and hacked PIN code & voter fraud risk, global contests and local law compliance risk) and the special considerations of running a contest using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The presentation concludes with a summary of documents, processes and products that a prudent contest sponsor requires to mitigate these risks.

View the presentation below or download the PDF here.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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