With the passing of Bill C-59, the government will regulate ideological differences just like it does deceptive pricing

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Companies that don’t tow the government line on climate change will soon have to, now that Bill C-59 is law. The bill, which received royal assent in June, amended Canada’s Competition Act to prohibit the private sector from “greenwashing” — a move that cracks down on corporate communications to an intrusive degree.

Prior to the amendment, the Competition Act regulated deceptive marketing in general: false claims and misleading representations, for example. Now, Bill C-59 has expanded the scope of the law to include representations to the public that guarantee “a product’s benefits for protecting or restoring the environment or mitigating the environmental, social and ecological causes or effects of climate change,” as well as any representations about a business’ impact on “protecting or restoring the environment or mitigating the environmental and ecological causes or effects of climate change.”

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For individuals, fines start at $750,000, and for corporations, that figure starts at $10,000,000. It’s sobering stuff.

Such penalties have........

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