Marketing is where enthusiasm meets the law, and a lot of small businesses cross a line without realizing it. Canada has real rules about what you can claim, how you show prices, and how you use reviews, and the regulator has been paying more attention, especially as AI makes it trivially easy to generate fake reviews and too-good-to-be-true claims. You do not need to be timid, honest marketing is completely fine, but you should know where the lines are. Here is a plain-language guide. This is orientation, not legal advice.
The golden rule: do not mislead
Canada's Competition Act prohibits materially false or misleading representations to promote a product, service, or business. That is the principle under almost everything else: your marketing should not create a false impression in a customer's mind, whether through an outright false statement or a technically-true-but-misleading one. If a claim would make a reasonable person expect something they will not actually get, it is a problem, regardless of how carefully it is worded.
The areas that trip businesses up
- Pricing and "sales." Advertised prices should be genuine and attainable, and a "regular price" you are discounting from has to be real, not an inflated number invented to make the sale look bigger.
- Performance claims. If you claim a result or a benefit, you need a reasonable basis for it before you make the claim, not after someone challenges it.
- Testimonials and reviews. They must be genuine and reflect real customer experience. Fake or paid reviews presented as independent are exactly what regulators are cracking down on.
- Hidden fees. The advertised price should be the real price; burying mandatory fees ("drip pricing") is specifically targeted.
The AI wrinkle
AI has made it effortless to generate glowing reviews, fake testimonials, and polished claims at scale, and that is precisely the wrong use of it. Using AI to fabricate reviews or invent endorsements is not a grey area; it is the kind of misleading practice the rules exist to stop, and it is increasingly detectable and enforced. It is also just bad business: customers and platforms are getting sharper at spotting fakes, and getting caught torches the trust you were trying to build. Use AI to write clearly, never to fabricate proof.
Market with confidence, honestly
None of this should make you nervous about promoting your business. The rules essentially say: be truthful, be able to back up what you claim, show real prices, and use real reviews. That is not a constraint on good marketing; it is good marketing, and it is the same honesty that builds the trust your website and policies are meant to reflect. If you are running a big campaign or making strong claims, a quick review is worth it, but for everyday honest promotion, you are already onside.