Protect your platform from misuse, abuse, and legal liability. Flat-fee Canadian legal review of your Acceptable Use Policy — or full revision with tracked changes.
Choose Review Only for a written memo of issues identified, or Review and Edit for a fully revised AUP with tracked changes.
A weak AUP makes account terminations legally risky. We make sure your prohibited-use list is comprehensive and your termination rights are clearly enforceable.
Drafts checked for Ontario jurisdiction, PIPEDA privacy compliance, Consumer Protection Act requirements, and enforceable limitation of liability.
Review Only in 2-3 business days. Review and Edit in 3-5 business days. Urgent options available.
Ready to skip the reading? Send us your draft now.
Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) are often an afterthought — copied from another platform or generated by AI with minimal customization. That creates real legal exposure when you need to actually enforce them.
A weak AUP means you cannot reliably terminate abusive users, you cannot defend yourself if your platform is used for illegal activity, and you cannot enforce your prohibited-use list when challenged. AI-generated AUPs are particularly weak on the categories of conduct most relevant to your specific platform.
At Onley Law, we review and revise AUPs to be platform-specific, legally enforceable under Canadian law, and aligned with how you actually operate. Two service tiers depending on how much help you need.
What it includes: A complete legal review of your existing Acceptable Use Policy. We provide a written summary of issues identified, risks flagged, and specific recommendations for changes — delivered as a clear memo you can act on.
Best for: Businesses that have an internal team who can implement edits, and want a legal second opinion before going live.
Turnaround: Typically 2-3 business days. Flat-fee pricing provided after document review.
What it includes: Everything in the Review Only option, plus a fully revised version of your Acceptable Use Policy returned as a Word document with tracked changes. Every edit is visible so you know exactly what changed and why.
Best for: Businesses that want a finished, lawyer-revised document ready to use — not just a list of issues to fix themselves.
Why tracked changes? Transparency. You should see every revision a lawyer makes to your document, with full ability to accept or reject any edit.
Turnaround: Typically 3-5 business days. Flat-fee pricing provided after document review.
Choose Review Only or Review and Edit — we will quote within one business day.
Prohibited Conduct Categories: Clear, enumerated prohibitions covering illegal activity, harassment, spam, intellectual property infringement, malware, fraud, and platform-specific abuses. Generic lists are not enough — the categories must match your actual platform.
Content Restrictions: What types of content are not permitted? This needs to be specific enough to enforce but flexible enough to cover emerging issues.
Security and Integrity Provisions: Prohibitions on attempting to circumvent security, reverse engineering, scraping, automated access, and excessive resource consumption.
User-to-User Conduct: If your platform has multiple users interacting, the AUP must address what users can and cannot do to each other.
Reporting Mechanism: How users can report violations, and your commitments around investigating reports.
Enforcement Rights: Your rights to investigate, suspend, terminate accounts, remove content, and cooperate with law enforcement. This must align with your Terms of Service termination provisions.
Appeals or Reinstatement: Whether terminated users have any appeal mechanism — and how that works.
Updates and Modifications: Your right to update the AUP, and how users are notified.
Coordination with Terms of Service: The AUP should reference your T&Cs and clarify which document controls in case of conflict.
SaaS Platforms: Your AUP governs what customers can do with your software. Without a strong AUP, you cannot enforce against abusive use of your platform.
Marketplace and Platform Businesses: Two-sided marketplaces, content hosting platforms, social platforms, and gig economy platforms all need detailed AUPs. The category of platform drives the specific prohibitions required.
Cloud and Hosting Providers: Hosting customer infrastructure or content creates significant downstream legal exposure. A strong AUP is your primary defence.
Communications and Messaging Platforms: Anything that lets users send messages to each other (or to non-users) needs anti-spam, anti-harassment, and CASL-aware provisions.
Any Platform with User-Generated Content: If users can upload, share, or post content on your platform, you need an AUP that addresses content restrictions and your moderation rights.
Canadian law affects Acceptable Use Policies in several specific ways. Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) imposes strict obligations on commercial electronic messages. The Criminal Code sets baseline conduct restrictions. Provincial human rights legislation governs discriminatory content. The Copyright Act shapes how you handle IP infringement claims and notice-and-notice obligations.
If your AUP was drafted for a U.S. platform and applied to Canadian users without revision, it likely misses these frameworks — and may include U.S. provisions (like DMCA notices) that do not match Canadian law.
Not always — for simple websites, the AUP can be folded into your Terms & Conditions. But for SaaS, marketplaces, and platforms with significant user activity, a standalone AUP is best practice. It is easier to update, easier to enforce, and clearer for users.
Terms of Service govern the overall contractual relationship — payment, IP, liability, etc. The AUP focuses specifically on what users can and cannot do on your platform. They work together; the AUP is usually incorporated by reference into the ToS.
It is a starting point but not a finish line. Other platforms’ AUPs are tailored to their specific risks, jurisdictions, and enforcement priorities. Adapting an AUP without legal review often imports provisions that do not apply to your platform — and misses ones that do.
If your platform allows users to send commercial electronic messages (or if you do so yourself), CASL imposes strict consent and content requirements. Your AUP should prohibit users from misusing your platform to send non-compliant messages.
Yes. We offer the same Review Only and Review and Edit service for Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policies, Master Services Agreements, and Cookie Policies. Many clients review them together as a complete website legal package.
Send us your draft Acceptable Use Policy using the form below. We will review it and provide a flat-fee quote within one business day.
No retainer required. No billable-hour surprises.
Tell us about your draft below. We will reply within one business day with a flat-fee quote and instructions for sending us your document (if you have one ready). No retainer required. No billable-hour surprises.
The legal foundation of your website — governs user relationship, IP, liability
PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25 compliance for your privacy disclosures
Cookie consent banners and tracking disclosures for Canadian compliance
B2B contract governing your most important commercial relationships
Privacy addendum required by enterprise customers and regulated industries
At Onley Law, we’re entrepreneurs like you, specializing in Business Law to address your unique challenges and get business done.
Contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation, and let’s navigate the legal landscape together, empowering your business to thrive.
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Operating inside the Spark Centre, we operate and work alongside entrepreneurs inside Durham’s top business accelerator.
Find us at: 2 Simcoe Street South, Suite 300, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 8C1.
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