The National Post reports in its Monday edition that if you shop on-line, you are likely familiar with the experience -- you agree to buy for a certain price, but by the time you check out, the cost has ballooned. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post reports that if you buy movie tickets, flowers or make travel plans all could be subject to hidden fees that are subsequently added to the originally quoted cost. Critics call it drip pricing, a strategy that has been deemed unlawful. Consumers now have the power to fight back, with multiple class-action lawsuits filed in British Columbia targeting the practice.
Vancouver lawyer Saro Turner, who is involved in some of the drip-pricing lawsuits, says more are likely on the way. He says: "The average consumer is not a mathematician. Companies that have a significant volume of commerce have to show the price in a meaningful way, not in a deceptive and misleading way." Mr. Turner says the path to the lawsuits was paved by June, 2022, changes to the federal Competition Act, that now explicitly labels undisclosed fees and surcharges that make advertised prices "unattainable" as a "harmful business practice." Mr. Turner's firm has drip-pricing cases pending against Cineplex.
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