Sponsorship, Promotional Contest and Gift Card Law - Davis LLP

Gift cards have become wildly popular in Canada. Their main appeal is that they make easy gifts: they're compact, lightweight, and flexible. They're available in a wide range of retail outlets and they take the guesswork out of gift-giving. This has resulted in gift cards becoming a multi-billion dollar industry in Canada. As a result, many provinces in Canada have enacted legislation to regulate the gift card industry.

Promotional contests have been popular for more than 100 years in Canada, and the legislation regarding promotional contests is well-established. If not run correctly, a promotional contest can violate Canadian criminal law, Canadian competition law, and provincial legislation.

Event and athlete sponsorships are another common method for promoting corporate brands in Canada. Legislation is not as much of a concern for most corporate sponsorships, but there can be issues with sponsoring minors, protecting the trade-marks that are being promoted, and maximizing the value of the sponsorship payments.

The Davis LLP Sponsorship, Promotional Contest and Gift Card Law Group advises clients in connection with the following:

• drafting and negotiating athlete, event and corporate sponsorship agreements
• protecting corporate brands and trade-marks
• enforcing sponsorship agreements
• complying with contest legislation
• drafting contest rules and waivers
• representing clients before the Competition Bureau, Competition Tribunal and courts
• complying with gift-card legislation
• negotiating gift-card agreements
• drafting gift-card terms