Black Friday falls on November 27 this year. Last November, Google Ads estimated 135,000 searches for "black friday canada" in Canada, and plenty of Quebec online stores are already lining up their strikethrough prices. On November 25, 2025, the Competition Bureau put out a release aimed at businesses, with a headline that ended: "Competition Bureau sees surge in complaints about inflated regular prices".
Almost everything written about fake discounts is aimed at the shopper. This article takes the other side of the counter. A "was $100, now $60" is a statement about your store's past, and since 2024 federal law asks the seller to prove it. That proof is not in your theme or your banner. It is, or is not, in your database.
The short answer, for the busy
In Canada, a strikethrough price is a representation about an ordinary price under section 74.01 of the Competition Act. Since June 20, 2024, the seller must establish that its own reference price meets one of two tests: it sold a substantial volume of the product at that price or higher within a reasonable period, or it offered the product at that price in good faith for a substantial period recently before or immediately after the promotion. The Competition Bureau reads the first test as more than 50% of sales, and places both "usually within a year". A corporation faces a penalty of up to $10 million, or three times the benefit derived if that is higher. In Quebec, the Consumer Protection Act also forbids falsely invoking a price reduction or a reference price (s. 225). The proof is your store's dated price history.
Since 2024, the burden sits with you
Section 74.01 of the Competition Act covers representations "as to the price at which a product or like products have been, are or will be ordinarily supplied". Subsection (3), which covers your own reference price, makes this reviewable conduct "unless that person, having regard to the nature of the product and the relevant geographic market, establishes that" one of two things is true. Either "they have sold a substantial volume of the product at that price or a higher price within a reasonable period of time", or "they have offered the product at that price or a higher price in good faith for a substantial period of time recently before or immediately after" the representation.
Before June 20, 2024, this subsection framed the rule the other way round: the conduct was caught where the seller had not sold or offered the product at that price. The operative word is now "establishes". In our reading, the strikethrough went from a claim the regulator had to take apart to a claim you have to document.
For a corporation, the administrative penalty can reach the greater of $10 million ($15 million for a subsequent order) and three times the benefit derived, or 3% of annual worldwide gross revenues if that benefit cannot be reasonably determined (s. 74.1). Since June 2025, any person may also ask the Competition Tribunal for leave to bring this application, granted if the Tribunal is satisfied it is in the public interest (s. 103.1). In 2019, Hudson's Bay agreed to pay a $4 million penalty plus $500,000 in investigation costs to resolve allegations of deceptive regular price claims on sleep sets.
One defence is about your systems: no penalty can be ordered against a person who establishes that they exercised due diligence to prevent the conduct (s. 74.1(3)).
Two tests, two questions for your database
The Bureau turns the law into two tests. The volume test: more than 50% of sales at that price or higher. The time test: the product offered in good faith at that price or higher for a substantial period, immediately before or after the promotion. Both "usually within a year". The 50% figure is the Bureau's reading; the Act says "substantial volume". Good faith, per the Bureau, means the retailer "honestly believes the price is fair and expects that customers will actually pay it".
Written as queries, the two tests ask very different things. The volume test asks what share of units sold in the period went at the reference price or higher. Your orders answer it: each one keeps the price actually paid.
The time test asks how many days the product was offered at that price. Orders cannot answer it: a product listed at $100 for six months without a sale leaves no trace there. Only a history of offered prices can, and a product record is not one. Shopify stores a "Price" and a "Compare-at price", WooCommerce a "Regular price" and a "Sale price": current values, replaced by every edit. Shopify's compare-at price is a number you type; its documentation describes no check against actual sales.
Two traps follow. The first is raising a price in October to "cut" it in November. Three weeks at $100 before Black Friday is not, in our reading, a substantial period, and good faith is a hard argument for a price nobody paid. The second is assuming a "20% off" with no price shown escapes the question. The Bureau lists "20% off our regular price!" among the ambiguous and unverifiable savings claims to avoid. An unwritten reference price still exists.
What Quebec's Consumer Protection Act adds
The Consumer Protection Act puts no number on a genuine regular price, but it forbids a false one. Under section 225, no merchant may falsely "invoke a price reduction", "indicate a regular price or another reference price", or "let it be believed that the price of certain goods or services is advantageous". The federal tests remain, in our view, the most precise grid for documenting yours.
The consequences reach the contract itself. For paragraphs a and b of section 225, section 253 creates a presumption that, had the consumer known of the practice, they would not have agreed to the contract or would not have paid such a high price. Section 272 opens a reduction of their obligation and punitive damages. And section 278 makes it a penal offence: for a business, the fine can reach 5% of the previous year's worldwide turnover, where that exceeds $125,000.
Three more rules touch a Black Friday campaign directly. Section 231 prohibits advertising goods in insufficient quantity unless the ad says the quantity is limited and states it. The Office de la protection du consommateur says that "limited quantity" or "while supplies last" is not enough: you need the exact number, which your store already knows. We read this as section 231 applied. Next, according to the Office, if a sale's end date is clearly shown, you can return to the regular price afterwards; otherwise the customer can demand the lowest price. Finally, per the Office, ads cannot suggest the buyer skips sales tax: "no taxes" is prohibited, "we pay the taxes for you" is allowed (the taxes themselves are covered in our article on selling online).
The all-in price under section 224(c) and the federal drip pricing rule are explained in our article on Quebec consumer law for online stores. For scale: over a mandatory $1.50 online booking fee, the Competition Tribunal ordered Cineplex to pay a penalty of over $38.9 million in September 2024, and the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the appeal on January 21, 2026.
The strikethrough doesn't stay on your site
To show a strikethrough in Shopping ads in Canada, Google requires the base price to have been valid for 30 days within the past 200, with a discount above 5% and below 90%, and says it regularly validates the sale price on your website. In our reading, Google therefore keeps a history of your prices, possibly a more complete one than yours. Its threshold is not the law's: passing Google's test proves nothing to the Bureau (the feed itself is covered in our article on Google Shopping).
Shopify can also pass compare-at prices to AI agents such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. Every new surface repeats your claim.
Next to the price, some new goods now carry something else: the duration of the warranty of good working order. And a "bonus gift card" promotion follows its own rules.
Building the proof into the store
The core piece is a price log: every change to price or reference price, per variant, with a timestamp and a source (admin, import, app). Nothing in it is edited; rows are only added. Together with orders, which already keep the price paid, it answers both tests.
On top of it sits a per-campaign report. Before a strikethrough goes live, it computes for each product the number of days at the reference price or higher over the last twelve months, and the share of units sold at that price or higher. If neither holds, the product shows its price with no strikethrough. The campaign page is then archived with its date. The Bureau advises keeping "detailed records of promotions, including dates, discounts and regular prices": in our view, that is also the best material for a due diligence defence.
One last piece to remove rather than build: the countdown timer. The Bureau lists a timer that "runs out or resets but the offer is still available" among fake urgency cues. If you plan to extend the sale through Cyber Monday, don't show one.
This log and this report are part of the stores we build.
Where to start, four weeks before November 27
Start the log today, even as a dated daily export. For each product you plan to strike through, check both tests using your orders and past exports. Drop the strikethrough where the proof is missing, show the end date and exact quantities, take the timers down.
If your store can't yet answer "since when has this been the price?", now is the time to wire that in.
→ Let's talk about your store before Black Friday
This article explains legal rules to help an SMB ask the right questions. It is not legal advice: how the ordinary price tests apply depends on the product, the market and the circumstances. Validate your situation with a lawyer, the Competition Bureau or the Office de la protection du consommateur. The text of the Competition Act and the Consumer Protection Act prevails.
Written byXavier Peich