Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) announced on May 31 that it will now allow private label cannabis products, effective immediately. 

In an online bulletin, the AGLC says it had amended certain sections of its Cannabis Representative Handbook (CRH) and the Retail Cannabis Store Handbook (RCSH) to allow for the new change. 

The AGLC requires license holders to notify the agency if a product registration is a Private Label.

According to the new AGLC rules, private label cannabis products, also known as Store Brand or White Label cannabis products, “must be listed at a wholesale price equal to or greater than the lowest general listed products that the cannabis supplier has in the same category and product type.”

No private label cannabis product arrangement between a cannabis supplier and a cannabis licensee can prevent the supplier from entering into another arrangement to produce private label products for another licensee. Such products cannot be used as an inducement. 

All such private label products are still subject to approval by the AGLC. The AGLC had first floated the idea in 2023. 

A “Private Label” product can include a licensee-specific name or logo, a licensee-trademarked name or logo, or a statement such as “manufactured exclusively for name of licensee.”

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario began allowing such products in 2022 after brief opposition to the program. 

Cannabis retail association ABLE BC says that in December 2023, the LCRB wrote that one of the next cannabis market controls to be reviewed is white-labelling. 

A handful of cannabis companies have entered into white label relationships for products in Canada.

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