Terms of Use – Ad Standards

Last updated: November 2026

Thank you for visiting our website, adstandards.ca (the “Website”). This Website is owned and operated by Advertising Standards Canada (“Ad Standards” or “we”), the national self-regulatory organization for the advertising industry. Please read these Terms of Use carefully before using this Website.

Ad Standards makes this Website available to you subject to the terms and conditions (the “Terms of Use”) set out below. By accessing and using this Website, you agree to be bound by and comply with these Terms of Use. If you choose not to accept these Terms of Use, please do not continue to access our Website.

Ad Standards reserves the right to terminate, change, or update any aspect of this Website at any time without prior notice. Please check these Terms of Use frequently to inform yourself of any changes.

1. Using this Website

This Website and the graphics, text, logos, audio, and video herein (the “Content”) are provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. All content on this Website is provided solely to assist you in exercising your best judgment and at your own risk.

All rights, title and interest in and to the Website and the Content, including the copyright and other intellectual property rights therein, are owned or licensed by Ad Standards and may not be used by any third party without Ad Standards’ prior written consent. The Content may not be copied, sold, licensed, transferred, reproduced, stored or translated into any other form, in whole or in part, for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Ad Standards. Unless written consent is provided by Ad Standards, you may only use, access, download and/or copy the Content for personal, educational, journalistic, research or other non-commercial purposes.

Ad Standards makes no representation or warranty of any kind regarding the accuracy of the Content.

This Website may contain information concerning legal issues, specifically those that relate to marketing and advertising in Canada. Ad Standards does not give legal advice. The Content is provided solely for informational purposes and should not be relied upon or regarded as a substitute for legal or other professional advice. You agree that access to our Website or other services does not create any lawyer-client relationship between Ad Standards and you and we recommend that you seek advice from a qualified professional before acting on any Content appearing in this Website. Your reliance upon the Content obtained through this Website is solely at your own risk. We assume no responsibility for any consequences relating to any action or inaction you take based upon the information on this Website.

By accessing or using this Website, you agree to be bound by the terms of our Privacy Policy.

2. Automated Collection, Text-and-Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence

Except as expressly authorized in writing by Ad Standards, you may not use any robot, spider, scraper, crawler, data-mining tool, automated script, or other automated means to access, collect, extract, copy, reproduce, download, aggregate, or systematically store Content from this Website for commercial purposes.

Without limiting the foregoing, the Content may not be used, in whole or in part, to:

train, fine-tune, test, benchmark, evaluate, develop, or improve any artificial intelligence, machine learning, generative artificial intelligence, large language model, or similar technology;
create, enhance, supplement, or contribute to datasets used for artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated decision-making, analytics, or commercial research purposes;
conduct commercial text-and-data mining activities; or
develop, market, or provide products or services that are derived from or substantially replicate the Content.

Ad Standards expressly reserves all rights relating to the use of the Content for artificial intelligence training, machine learning development, text-and-data mining, automated data extraction, and similar activities. No licence or permission for such activities is granted or implied by these Terms of Use.

For greater certainty, nothing in this section is intended to restrict the indexing of the Website by generally available search engines for the purpose of facilitating access to Website content through search results, provided such indexing is conducted in accordance with applicable law and industry-standard website access protocols.

3. Links from this Website

This Website may contain hyperlinks to third party websites that are not maintained by Ad Standards. These Terms of Use do not apply to third party websites. Hyperlinks are provided as a convenience and do not imply any endorsement by Ad Standards of these linked websites and your use of hyperlinks is at your own risk. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for these other organizations, or the products, services, information or content found on third party websites.

4. Accounts

Users of Ad Standards’ Preclearance Services on the Website may be required or invited to set up an e-Clearance Account. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the email, password, or any other information required to log in, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your account.

5. User Submissions

In addition to Preclearance Services, users of the Website may be able to submit content or complaints through online forms available on the Website. By making a submission on our Website you agree that you are over the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which you live. You further agree that your submission to the Website:

Is complete and accurate;
Does not misrepresent the identity of the submitter, or the submitter’s affiliation with any other person or entity;
Does not violate the privacy or intellectual property rights of any other person or third party;
Does not intentionally violate any applicable laws; and
Is not abusive, harmful, threatening, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise offensive (except to the extent that you are reporting a complaint about advertising that you find offensive under the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards).

6. Limitation of Liability

In no circumstances shall Ad Standards be liable to you for any loss or damages whatsoever, business interruption, or other intangible losses of any kind arising from or relating in any way to (i) your reliance on or inability to use or access this Website, any contents of this Website, any external links on this Website, or any delivery, hosting and ancillary services or facilities of third party suppliers utilized by Ad Standards; (ii) any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, or system failure on the Website; and (iii) any other matter relating to the Website, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

7. Governing Law

This Website can be accessed from all provinces and territories of Canada, as well as from other countries around the world. As each of these jurisdictions has laws that may differ from those of the Province of Ontario, all matters relating to these Terms of Use shall be governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the laws of Canada applicable therein.