Mr. Schaan touched on this a little earlier. He mentioned the legal aspect.
The government wanted to use all the tools at its disposal to fight greenwashing. There was already a mechanism in the Competition Act that required evidence to make a claim about a product in the context of a transaction, as Mr. Schaan said. For example, if they said that a product washed whiter than the competitor's product, they needed evidence of that, they had to have tested it. The government took this pre-existing tool and decided to apply it to claims about a product's environmental benefits, such as saying that a product is greener. The difference is that, if they say that a product washes whiter but it doesn't, that affects the consumer. That's the test currently being used. However, if a product pollutes a lake, it doesn't affect consumers themselves. However, a product can be tested too. We can test whether or not a product leaves phosphorus in a lake, for example.
When they move away from that and make a broader claim, like when companies say they're green, there's no longer a pre-existing mechanism in the Competition Act. For example, if companies make blanket statements that they are fair or that they treat their employees well, there's no mechanism that requires them to already have proof of that. Such assertions are only subject to the general prohibition against breach of trust. The reason the government stopped there was that the Competition Act already had a mechanism that worked. However, more general statements stray from the scope of that mechanism.
Mr. Schaan said there was also a practical aspect. If a company says it's greener, what should it test to prove that? If it's greener in terms of a certain aspect, is that enough to make a general statement?
The European Union came up. The Competition Act is general legislation that applies to everyone. It has no sectoral provisions. In some countries, and even in Canada, when it comes to plastics in particular, recommendations are made on a more sectoral basis. Conditions can be set for the right to use the recycling symbol, for example. So there are other more sector-specific tools to combat greenwashing. We talked about statements like saying that a company is carbon neutral. The mechanism increasingly being put in place is climate disclosures in companies' annual reports. Perhaps other tools would make it possible to combat specific greenwashing activities. However, the Competition Act may be a limited tool for framing such broad statements.
If a company says it's greener, what should it test to prove that?