Canadian Tire ordered to pay nearly $1.3 million for false advertising (4.Viewing)

MONTREAL — Canadian Tire has been ordered to pay just under $1.3 million after pleading guilty to 74 counts of violating sections of Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act related to false advertising.

Crown prosecutor Jérôme Dussault says the Canadian retail giant agreed to the settlement after initially pleading not guilty.

At the Montreal courthouse, Quebec court Judge Simon Lavoie approved the agreement, which includes fines and costs ranging from $15,625 to $18,150 per count.

The case stems from a six-month investigation by the province’s consumer protection office in 2021.

The office concluded Canadian Tire had attempted to convince consumers that sale items were on deep discount by including an artificially inflated regular price on its advertising material.

Analysis of sales data showed that the products in question were rarely sold or advertised at the so-called regular price.

Read more: Canadian Tire ordered to pay nearly $1.3 million for false advertising

Um, doesn't every retailer do that? And if they had actually sold the products at the so-called regular price ever, then I don't see how this could be a legit complaint. Buyer has some responsibility to check any prices anywhere for sanity. And we all know that prices on the same product can fluctuate like crazy as they try and find their sweet spot to maximize profits.

Is it just me, or does this sound like the kind of thing that would only occur in Quebec?

rlm said:

Um, doesn't every retailer do that?

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That's the whole point, Kudos to Quebec for stepping in with some kind of regulation, it's about time.

One of my other pet peeves is the picture on the label not matching what is inside the product packaging on foods.

Did you know Japan has a rule with food and there has to be a real picture on the label representing what is inside?

Anyone investigating these guys?


Shoppers Drug Mart
Loblaws

Every retailer does it, but the difference is that Quebec actually has consumer protection laws and a government that is not afraid to stand up for the consumer. I give them kudos for this, as there are lot more shady things going on here than just faking prices.

In the rest of Canada, we virtually no protection at all, and must kneel to our corporate overlords and be happy with the crumbs they drop us.

Well, accurate pictures of what's inside would be great. No real mcdonalds hamburger has ever looked even 1/10th as appetizing as what they show on a tv commercial, lol. Had they sued for that, I'd be clapping too.

But in this case, it sounds like the price paid was what was published. So what if the discount was made to look bigger? The bottom line is always the price, not some supposed discount. Sometimes they'll bring some trendy product in with an inflated price. But then the trend fades quickly and the price drops because they can't get the shit out of the store any more. We all know a MSRP is jacked up for maximum profit, but retailers can sell it for whatever price they need to make it move. Seems like a pretty common scenario to me. There's gotta be some level of personal accountability to what you spend for things. You can bubble wrap kids before they go outside, but I guess you can't bubble wrap stupid. I still think this one sounds like a dumb lawsuit.