What are the elements of a negligent misrepresentation claim?

At this juncture of the discussion, a comparison to another cause of action involving economic losses may be helpful in understanding what Justice Rothstein decided. Negligent misrepresentation claims are an example of a claim for pure economic loss. The constituent elements of this claim are: (1) duty of care based on a special relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant; (2) an untrue, inaccurate, or misleading representation; (3) the defendant making the representation negligently; (4) the plaintiff having reasonably relied on the misrepresentation; and, (5) the plaintiff suffering damages as a consequence of relying on the misrepresentation: Queen v. Cognos, 1993 CanLII 146 (SCC), [1993] 1 S.C.R. 87. Of these five elements, common issues may be derived for the first three elements, and the conventional wisdom is that the reliance and the damage elements are individual issues. In comparison, for indirect purchasers, the constituent elements of their statutory cause of action for economic losses for overpricing, which is established by s. 36 of Competition Act, discussed further below, are: (1) a breach of an offence found in the Act; (2) overcharges having been passed on to the indirect purchaser level of the distribution chain; and (3) the class member suffering damages as a consequence of the overcharges having been passed on to the indirect purchaser level of the distribution chain. Common issues may be derived for the first two elements of the statutory cause of action but not for the third element, but it may not be necessary to have an individual issues assessment where the damages may be aggregated, after which it is no longer the defendant’s concern how those damages are distributed among class members.