Canada: Introduction of draft law including local content requirement

The Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other acts (Bill C-10) was introduced to the House of Commons, the lower house of the Canadian Parliament. The Bill aims to include online undertakings in the Canadian Broadcasting act. Online undertaking means an undertaking for the transmission or retransmission of programs over the Internet for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus. Under the Bill online undertakings must clearly promote and recommend Canadian programming, in both official languages as well as Indigenous languages, and ensure that any means of control of the programming generates results allowing its discovery. An individual who commits a violation shall be fined up to C$25,000, C$50,000 for each subsequent violation. In the case of a person other than an individual, it is C$10 million and C$15 million respectively.