
Archive for October, 2024
October 7, 2024
On September 23, 2024, Canada’s Competition Bureau announced that the federal Competition Tribunal (Tribunal) had found that Cineplex Inc. (Cineplex), a Canadian theatre chain, had engaged in drip pricing by adding a mandatory and insufficiently disclosed $1.50 online booking fee for the online sale of movie tickets (see: Competition Bureau wins deceptive marketing case against Cineplex)
The Tribunal ordered Cineplex to pay an administrative monetary penalty of more than $38.9 million and legal costs. This penalty is equivalent to the amount that Cineplex collected from theatre consumers from the time of the introduction of its online booking fee from June 2022 until December 2023.
In making its announcement, the Competition Bureau said:
“The Tribunal’s decision in the Cineplex case is a resounding win for Canadians. It sends a strong message that businesses should not engage in drip pricing and need to display their full prices upfront. Businesses that fail to comply with the law risk significant financial penalties.”