Merchant Beware: The Costs Of Misleading Advertising

Although advertising campaigns which use flashy representations to grab consumers' attention might be effective, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") recently ruled that they might also entitle those consumers to compensatory and punitive damages against the merchant. In Richard v. Time Inc., the plaintiff instituted an action against the defendants Time Inc. and Time Consumer Marketing Inc. after learning that the "Official Sweepstakes Notification" that he had received in the mail (and which had induced him to mail back the enclosed "Reply Coupon" in order to claim his anticipated winnings, thereby also subscribing to Time magazine for two years) was in fact only intended to be an invitation to participate in a sweepstakes, and not confirmation that he had already won the sweepstakes.