Shopify – Federal Court of Appeal prohibits Shopify from deleting inactive accounts within the scope of appealed s. 231.2 requirements

Shopify (2025 FC 969) refused the authorization pursuant to s. 231.2(3) (and its ETA equivalent) of requirements for Shopify to provide information regarding certain persons who used the Shopify software platform to sell products and services online, given that the requirements’ wording were too vague and confusing for there to be an ascertainable group and because they were disproportional.

In connection with an appeal of that decision to the Court of Appeal, the Minister brought this motion for a preservation order that would prevent Shopify’s policy of deleting data from inactive accounts after two years from affecting accounts within the scope of the proposed requirements.

In authorizing this request (on modified terms), Goyette, J.A., noted that, in accordance with the RJR-MacDonald three-part test for granting an interlocutory injunction:

• There was a serious issue to be tried (although applicants for mandatory interlocutory injunctions must show a strong likelihood of success, here the substance of the proposed preservation order instead was to require Shopify to refrain from deleting information rather than to take any affirmative action).
• Without the order, the public interest would suffer irreparable harm (not granting the order would result in inactive accounts being deleted, thereby marring CRA verification of compliance, and this public interest should not be prejudiced by the two-year delay of the Minister in bringing this application); and
• The balance of convenience favoured the public interest (harm to Shopify in having to comply with the order was not demonstrated to be substantial, provided that the terms of the preservation order adopted restrictions respecting the included accounts that were apparent from a review of the Federal Court’s judgment).

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Minister of National Revenue v. Shopify Inc., 2025 FCA 232 under s. 231.2(3).