Labelling and Precious Metals Marking

Table of Contents

• Previous  

Table of Contents

• Core principles to develop a credible
  and effective compliance program
  • Build a credible and effective
    compliance program for your business
  • Build a culture of compliance
    with management support
  • Assess your risks
  • Implement compliance policies, procedures
    and controls to mitigate your risks
  • Train and communicate
  • Use effective reporting mechanisms
  • Monitor and audit compliance measures
  • Offer incentives and impose
    disciplinary measures
  • Evaluate your program and revise
    your compliance measures
• Specific activities
  • Conspiracies, bid-rigging and other
    agreements that may harm competition
  • Wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements
  • Deceptive marketing practices
  • Mergers
  • Abuse of dominance and restrictive
    trade practices
  • Labelling and precious metals marking

Labelling laws that the Competition Bureau enforces

In addition to the Competition Act, we enforce the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act (except as it relates to food), the Textile Labelling Act and the Precious Metals Marking Act.

Under these laws, consumers must be given certain information so that they can make informed buying decisions.

Under the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act:

• the packaging, labelling, sale, importation and advertising of prepackaged non-food consumer products must meet specific requirements
• products must have three mandatory statements on the label:
  1. product identity
  2. product net quantity
  3. dealer’s name and principal place of business
• all information on a package and in advertising should not be false or misleading to the consumer
• the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Regulations specify how and where the mandatory statements have to appear

Under the Textile Labelling Act:

• the labelling, sale, importation and advertising of consumer textile articles must meet specific requirements of the Act and the Textile Labelling and Advertising Regulations
• textile labels must include the the generic fibre name, content and the dealer’s full name and postal address, or for a dealer in Canada, a CA identification number
• textile labels and advertising can’t make any false or misleading representations relating to textile fibre products

Under the Precious Metals Marking Act:

• articles containing precious metals, meaning gold, silver, platinum or palladium, on their own or combined with other metal, must be marked as designated in the Precious Metals Marking Regulations
• articles made with precious metals must use uniform description and quality markings
• it is not mandatory to mark or advertise a precious metal article for quality (e.g., sterling silver), however any mark or advertisement which refers to the quality of a precious metal article must be factual and meet specific requirements in the law and regulations

Our website on labelling laws gives you more information on how to comply with these rules. You can also see our compliance bootcamp series on labelling laws.

How to contact us

For general inquiries: contact the Bureau