As a business, you may need to make updates to your
website's terms of use (“TOU”)
(also known as the “terms of service”). Quite often,
the TOU gives you and your business the sole, unilateral power to
modify the terms at any given time without giving anyone notice.
For example, check out the TOU of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation's website. As of January 6, 2023, it
states:
“These terms of use may be amended from time to time, so
please come back to review them periodically.”
You may ask yourself whether you can just make those changes
without notifying your website's users.
Short answer is, in Canada, it depends on the terms of your TOU.
Generally, if your TOU allows for modifying the TOU without
providing notice to your website users, then you may make those
changes. However, case law from the United States is quickly
creating a new standard that may spread to Canada in the not so
distant future. The new standard emerging requires notice to
