As part of the new proposed House Rules, all users who post about a public company on CEO.CA AND who have either (1) direct affiliations with companies discussed on this website, (2) affiliations with companies or organizations who have business ties to companies discussed on this website, (3) family relationships with companies discussed on this website must disclose this information on their profiles, or (4) insider relationships with any public company discussed on this website, MUST publicly disclose this relationship on their CEO.CA profiles.

We define “insider” as either being (1) an officer or director or employee of a public company listed on CEO.CA, (2) a shareholder holding over 10% of a public company listed on CEO.CA or (3) anyone who possesses inside information because of his or her relationship with the Company or with an officer, director or principal stockholder of the Company.

We define “direct affiliation” as having either an existing contract or one as recently as 12 months from a given public post. The contract can range from a paid engagement, to a relationship involving the exchange of gifts. If you do not wish to specify the type of affiliation you have, you may just declare “affiliation” on your profile in your disclosure disclaimer. However, you should ensure the disclosure of the relationship is in line with relevant securities laws requirements on your profile as well.

Examples of affiliation under criteria #2 include: an individual being paid by an investor relations firm which has received cash, shares or options from a given public company 8 months ago for a marketing campaign that has since ended before the time of this user’s post in question.

All users who do not disclose these affiliation terms are subject to an immediate 6 month site-wide suspension. If the user does not update their profile afterwards, they will receive a lifetime ban from CEO.CA. Warnings for an immediate disclosure within 24 hours will be given to members. Site moderators have the latitude to enforce immediate 6 month site-wide suspensions.

Two of the primary and related goals of securities regulation are the protection of investors from fraudulent, manipulative or misleading practices and the fostering of fair, efficient, and transparent markets through the identification of promotional activity. The definition of promotional activity is broad and includes any communications or activity that be expected to encourage a person to purchase, trade or not purchase a security or derivative, regardless of the platform or medium, which captures marketing activities as well as investor relations. It is not enough to have a provision in every contract with an investor relations or marketing services provider that the services will be provided in compliance with securities laws (although your contract should include such a provision); the management or directors or consultants who are involved with the marketing services and service providers need to make sure that the paid promotions are in compliance with the requirements of the relevant securities acts. 

This policy, along with the new House Rules, may be discussed during the weekly office hour sessions. These sessions have been moved to every Friday at 1pm Pacific Standard Time.  The link for these sessions are https://meet.google.com/dqr-hmdt-ici