C-372 – The Fossil Fuel Advertising Act – makes it illegal to misrepresent the environmental and health impacts of fossil fuels in advertising.
Application of C-372
So first up an important part, what’s exempt from this? The main exemption applies as long as no producer or retailer of fossil fuels, nor any company whose purpose is promoting fossil fuels, is involved in the production. As long as that’s true literary, dramatic, musical, cinematographic, scientific, educational, or artistic works are exempt from C-372. Opinions, commentary, or reports on fossil fuels, their brands, or their production are also exempt.
It’s worth noting that foreign media is still covered by this Act. Any ads a Canadian or Canadian company broadcasts outside of the country will still have to follow these regulations. Ads being broadcast that originate from outside of Canada aren’t affected by this though, so broadcasters don’t have to worry about what ads are showing up on American TV channels.
Finally, if a provincial government makes its own laws around advertising fossil fuels the feds can reach an agreement with them where C-372 doesn’t apply on top of their own laws.
Promotion
And now we get into the big part. You can’t promote a fossil fuel or its production in a way that’s false, misleading, or deceptive when it comes to the characteristics or environmental and health risks of fossil fuels and their production and emissions. When determining this the general impression of a promotion will be looked at as well as the literal meaning of anything said in the promotion. So a fossil fuel ad that involves a lot of lush, green forests around an oil well would probably run against this Act.
There’s a few things you specifically can’t suggest in an ad for fossil fuels. First, you can’t say that your fuel, its production, or its emissions are less harmful than other fuels. You also can’t suggest that the fossil fuel industry or its practices would lead to better environmental health, physical health, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, or an improvement for the Canadian or global economy.
Producers and retailers won’t be allowed to hold promotions for the purchase of fossil fuels either. This includes things like gifts for purchases, rebates, entry into a contest, or point rewards. No benefits for buying lots of fossil fuel or from a particular retailer will be allowed. They will still be allowed to post signage that shows availability and price of fossil fuels at the point of sale though, as long as nothing else on that signage runs against this Act.
Any ads that would fall under these regulations need to be submitted to the Minister of Health for approval before they can be aired. The Minister has the option to request more information on the ad if needed to show if any information is misleading or not.
Regulations
Regulations can be made under this Act by an Order in Council. These regulations can cover:
- Promoting fossil fuels, including the use of fossil fuel-related brand elements and the form and type of media allowed for promotions
- Authorizing promotions of fossil fuels as sponsorships, such as for sporting events
- Prohibiting specific terms, phrases, expressions or logos from being used in promotions
- What type of signs can be posted at the point of sale, how many can be posted, and what content can be on them
- Information that needs to be submitted to the Minister before an ad can air, as well as what extra information the Minister can ask for
Punishments
The producer of an ad that runs against this Act could be fined up to $1,500,000 and/or be sent to prison for up to two years. Anyone other than the producer can be fined up to $750,000. A retailer can be fined up to $3,000 on the first offence and $50,000 for each additional offence. If any offences are committed by a corporation, any director or officer of that corporation who authorized the offence will also be guilty of the offence. Finally, each instance of breaking this Act is applied by the day. Every day that you continue airing the offending ad counts as a new offence.
There is a defence here if you’ve practiced due diligence when making the ad. You won’t be charged for misinformation if you can show that you checked on that information and found it was accurate at the time. Charges also can’t be laid for any offence that’s more than two years old.
Progress of C-372
C-372 is currently waiting for its Second Reading vote.