April New McMillan Publications of Interest

The regulation of CBD products; mandatory arbitration in B2B contracts; new employment decision for animators calls into question BC overtime exemptions; and Canada’s privacy laws may be under overhaul.

Some recent McMillan Articles that may be of interest to startups:

• How are CBD Products Regulated under Canadian Cannabis Law? The Canadian regulatory landscape governing the cannabis industry is complex and continuously evolving.  Prior to getting involved in the legal cannabis industry in Canada, whether as an investor or entrepreneur, producer or retailer, or otherwise, it is important to understand the regulatory restrictions of the current regime.  For a high-level summary of the rapidly-evolving regulatory regime in Canada, read this article.
• Check your T&Cs, you B2Bs:  The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that, while business-to-consumer mandatory arbitration is generally problematic under provincial Canadian laws, courts will and should enforce fairly-drafted mandatory arbitration clauses in business-to-business (B2B) contracts. As a result, Canadian companies should take a look at their terms and conditions and see whether mandatory arbitration is appropriate and, if so, that the T&C’s are broadly drafted in a fair manner so that a Canadian court would stay any court or class action proceedings in the B2B space in favour of that arbitration.  Check out Robert Wisner’s article here.
• VFX Animators Aren’t (and others may not be) Overtime-Exempt:  Overtime eligibility can be an expensive lesson to learn the hard way. A recent decision from Employment Standards BC highlights the importance of being careful to determine an employee is overtime-exempt.  Visual Effects animators have long been considered exempt by the BC film and entertainment industry, based on a broad reading of the “high technology professional” exemption. This decision casts that into doubt, and reinforces that exemptions will be read narrowly: not every employee who uses technology, even cutting-edge technology, will be considered a “high technology professional” and each class of employee must be considered on its own facts. For more information, read here.
• Privacy Commissioner Signals Shift in Canadian Privacy Law:  Just when you thought the ripples from the European GDPR had settled down, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner is signalling a major change to how data is treated on transborder dataflows. If you use external, cloud-based data processing and storage that can’t guarantee Canadian sovereignty of data, this change in stance may concern you. The commissioner is soliciting comments through a consultation that is open until June 4, 2019.  For more information, read our article here.