July 16, 2020
Practical Law Canada has published a New Legal Update, which discusses the Competition Bureau’s recent open letter to Ontario’s Minister of Government and Consumer Services advocating for increased disclosure in Ontario rental appliance contracts. This Update includes an overview of the Bureau’s letter, summary of the regulation of rental appliance contracts in Ontario and the Bureau’s key recommendations. This Update also includes key deceptive marketing risks for rental appliance suppliers under the Competition Act. Below is an excerpt with a link to the full Legal Update at Practical Law.
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On July 14, 2020, the Competition Bureau (Bureau) published an open letter (Letter) to Ontario’s Minister of Government and Consumer Services (Minister) advocating for increased disclosure of key terms in Ontario rental appliance contracts, including water heaters (see Letter to the Ontario Minister of Government and Consumer Services advocating for increased disclosure in rental appliance contracts).
In general, the Bureau argues that Ontario consumers would benefit from rental equipment contracts that disclose key terms and conditions in writing in a clear, simple and accessible way. The Bureau’s letter follows the Minister’s announcement on March 12, 2020 that the Government planned to review Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act, 2002, S.O. 2002, c. 30 (CPA) (see Government of Ontario, News Release, Ontario Launches Consultations to Update Consumer Protection Act (March 12, 2020)).
According to the Government, it commenced a review of the CPA based, in part, on the fact that the legislation has not been reviewed since it came into force in 2005 and because “the marketplace has drastically changed since then.”
While there were special rules under the CPA relating to water heater agreements, including requirements for disclosure statements for consumers and verification calls for agreements to become effective, the regulation was revoked in 2018 when unsolicited door-to-door water heater contracts were prohibited (see Ontario Launches Consultations to Update Consumer Protection Act, Government of Ontario). Water heater suppliers are, however, still required to provide certain mandatory disclosures in consumer agreements and general disclosures required for direct agreements that are subject to section 43.1 of the CPA.
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For the full Update, see: Competition Bureau Advocates for Increased Disclosure of Key Terms for Ontario Rental Appliance Contracts.
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