Competition Bureau closes natural gas greenwashing probe
The Competition Bureau of Canada has closed its investigation into the Canadian Gas Association over allegations of greenwashing, concluding after four years that no further action was warranted. The probe, initiated in 2022, was triggered by complaints from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and allied groups, who argued that the association's advertising of natural gas as clean energy was false and misleading.
CAPE has reacted strongly, with six members writing to the federal government demanding intervention. They claim the bureau failed to explain its decision and pointed to what they call a “concerning systemic pattern” of dropping environmental marketing investigations. Their core complaint is that the watchdog is not doing what they want.
A shift toward the reasonable-person test
Author Stewart Muir argues that CAPE's description of systemic failure actually reflects the return of the reasonable-person test. The Competition Bureau exists to protect consumers from fraudulent claims for money. However, over the past decade, its mandate was stretched beyond recognition as advocacy organizations filed complaint after complaint against energy companies and industry associations. These complaints cost little to advance but consumed years of investigative bandwidth and put targets on the defensive, rarely addressing concrete consumer harm.
Consumer protection is easy to define: Does that health supplement actually work? Does that wireless plan come with hidden charges? These are the kinds of questions the Competition Act is designed to answer. Refereeing broad claims made in a public policy debate is something else entirely. A trade association describing natural gas as “affordable energy” that “burns cleaner than any other fuel” is advancing a position in a vigorous, ongoing public policy debate. Treating it as fraudulent consumer marketing risks stretching the Competition Act beyond its intended purpose.
Parliament retreats from expansive greenwashing rules
If the pendulum has swung back, as the pattern suggests, we should acknowledge it. Parliament has already begun retreating from the most expansive elements of the 2024 greenwashing regime, including narrowing the ability of third parties to invoke the Competition Act. The bureau’s renewed emphasis on the reasonable-person test points in the same direction.
Muir notes his personal investment: in July 2025, he joined seven other British Columbians in filing their own complaint with the Competition Bureau—but with the shoe on the other foot. The author sees the bureau's decision as a sensible application of the law, focusing on actual consumer harm rather than policy disputes.
