Canada’s competition laws need more power over green claims

A handful of proposed changes to Canada's Competition Act are good first steps to crack down on corporate greenwashing, but it still needs enforcement measures with teeth, environmental groups say.

With the right amendments, Canada’s Competition Act — which is being updated through Bill C-56 — has the potential to be a greenwashing-fighting machine, said Ecojustice and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). Now, a handful of proposed amendments could get the Competition Act closer, but not all the way to where it should be, the groups say.

The act is intended to prevent anti-competitive practices in the marketplace, such as price-fixing and false advertising, by using a combination of civil and criminal laws. It wasn’t designed to deal with companies making untrue or unsubstantiated climate and sustainability claims while negatively impacting the environment.

Still, this hasn’t stopped environmental groups like Stand.earth from filing complaints against companies. The Competition Bureau has launched several greenwashing investigations in recent years, into RBC and the Canadian Gas Association.

The federal finance committee proposed a greenwashing amendment that would require companies to back up with a test any claims about the environmental or climate benefits of their products.

Another amendment not directly related to climate and sustainability would empower Canadian consumers and organizations to challenge deceptive marketing practices, such as greenwashing, before the Competition Tribunal.

CAPE and Ecojustice say the greenwashing amendment should be expanded to apply not just to sustainability claims about products, but also include company-wide “net-zero” commitments supported with modelling. Canadians and the Competition Bureau should also be able to see the proof themselves. The amendment could be further strengthened to require all tests and modelling are publicly available, the environmental groups said in a news release on Dec. 1.

After the bill is passed, Ecojustice and CAPE are pushing for even more to be done. The groups want a dedicated sustainability unit at the Competition Bureau that focuses on green competition issues.

The Competition Bureau should also publish clear guidelines so companies know what environmental and climate-related claims they legally can make, said Matt Hulse, an Ecojustice lawyer, in a previous interview with Canada’s National Observer.

In March, Greenpeace Canada filed a complaint against a group of Canadian oilsands companies called the Pathways Alliance, alleging an ad campaign touting its net-zero emissions pledge gives Canadians the false impression that it can achieve that goal.

Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer