Watchdog Files Complaint Against 8 Canadian Furniture Retailers

September 22, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Legal on September 23, 2011

Canadian consumer watchdog group Option Consommateurs has filed a complaint alleging misleading business practices against eight major furniture retailers.

The Montreal-based group filed the complaint with the Competition Bureau, the Office de la Protection du Consommateur and Ontario's Ministry of Consumer Services against The Bay, Brault & Martineau, The Brick (including The Brick Clearance Centre), Dormez-Vous, Germain Lariviere, Leon, Mattress Mart and Sears.

The organization accuses the furniture stores of advertising items on sale so often that the "sale price" seems to be the current price; advertising an "introductory price" for an item that has in fact been available in store for a long time; for a mattress and box spring set, increasing the price of the mattress and then offering the box spring "free"; and selling "liquidation" articles at a higher price than when they were advertised on sale.

"These business practices seems to be misleading because they might lure consumers who are looking to take advantage of sales," said Jean-François Vinet, an analyst at Option Consommateurs, in a release. "Since the Competition Act was revised in 2009, any retailer guilty of such practices is liable to a fine of up to $10 million."

Click here for the research report, Genuine or Fake Sales? Review of regulatory frameworks in Canada and abroad and data collection study in the Canadian retail market.