The Federal Court dismissed two requests from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that would have, if accepted, compelled Shopify to disclose six years of data from its merchants. The cases began in 2023 when the CRA filed a request for personal information about Shopify’s merchants.
The Court held that the application from the CRA for Shopify merchant data could not be authorized, as the CRA had failed to establish an “ascertainable group” of individuals in its filing. In a second decision, the Court rejected a CRA application made in response to a request from the Australian Tax Office. In arguing the case, the Minister of National Revenue indicated that the CRA’s application would serve as a test case for future applications on behalf of foreign tax authorities. In rejecting the CRA’s application, the Federal Court provided a robust analysis of the interaction of Canada’s treaties and the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
In its reasons, the Federal Court noted that the cases may serve as key precedents in the future.
Bennett Jones advised Shopify.
The Bennett Jones team was led by Brynne Harding (Litigation) and Jehad Haymour (Tax), and included Daphne Wang (Litigation) and Anna Lekach (Tax).
The full decisions are available here and here.
