Manitoba’s Consumer Protection Office has announced that new consumer protection laws for fair and clear cell phone contracts will come into effect later this year (on September 15, 2012).
According to the Consumer Protection Office, the new rules “focus on ensuring that contracts are clear and provide all important information for consumers” and to ensure that “cell phone contracts are fair to both consumers and businesses”.
The new legislation will: (i) require companies to provide a copy of the contract to consumers before the contract begins, (ii) require companies to fully disclose and explain all charges fees and terms, (iii) restrict companies from making unilateral changes to contract terms, (iv) allow consumers to cancel contracts at any time, for a reasonable cancellation fee, (v) require the minimum monthly cost to be included in advertisements, and (vi) restrict automatic contract renewals.
Manitoba’s decision to introduce stricter regulation of cell phone contracts and disclosure follows similar recent enforcement actions, including by the Competition Bureau (see: here), CRTC (see: here, here, here and here) and Canadian Transportation Agency (see: here), as well as a number of recent cases where significant or novel penalties were imposed, including a recent landmark Supreme Court of Canada misleading contest case in which punitive damages were awarded (see: here, here and here).
These cases and initiatives also appear to signal an increase in the regulation of advertising in Canada in general and heightened scrutiny of price advertising and disclosure in particular (see e.g.: Is the Price Right? Increased Regulatory Scrutiny and Class Actions for Representations Involving Price).
For the news release and related documents see:
For more about Canada’s federal misleading advertising laws see:
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