Blakes has a long history of serving Canada’s retail sector and has in the last few years assisted a number of top brands with the expansion of their retail operations into Canada. Our Retail lawyers provide advice on all aspects of establishing or expanding retail operations in Canada from sector-specific advice to the more general questions that clients need to address, such as choosing their form of business entity, structuring the ownership and cross-border financing of that entity, and qualifying it to do business in various jurisdictions in Canada. We also provide income and commodity tax and customs advice relating to both the establishment and continuing operation of the business in Canada.
Blakes also provides advice on all aspects of e-commerce, including website content, language law requirements, data protection and privacy, anti-spam, payment and credit card considerations and logistics, and fulfilment contracts. We counsel clients on extra-jurisdictional issues as well as many Canadian and foreign companies who operate or utilize internet and e-commerce services provided by others. Having one of the largest commercial real-estate practices in Canada, Blakes can offer seamless service on leasing, acquisitions or dispositions across the country. Blakes also has a national employment and labour practice that can provide advice that is focused on some of the unique features and risks specific to employers in the retail sector, including ensuring compliance with both part-time and overtime employment standards requirements. We also have broad-based expertise in sector-specific issues, including brand protection, trade-mark clearance, packaging and labelling, consumer product safety, product recalls, advertising, anti-spam and the applicability of French language laws to retail operations in the province of Quebec. We are advise clients on all aspects of franchising in Canada, including whether a particular relationship could, contrary to the expectations of the parties, be found to be a franchise under Canadian law. Blakes also has extensive expertise in Canadian and cross-border retail insolvency proceedings, including Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and receivership cases.