Spotlight on Québec law: New warranty and repair obligations for consumer goods

Matthew Angelus (00:05): Hi, my name is Matthew Angelus, litigation partner at Torys in Montréal. I'm here today with my colleague, Karl Boulanger. Today we'd like to explore a recent bill passed by the Québec National Assembly, which introduces major changes to the Québec Consumer Protection Act, which primarily affect manufacturers and merchants of certain consumer goods in Québec. Karl, can you tell us what the major changes are, which came into force with Bill 29?

Karl Boulanger (00:28): Right, although many changes were introduced by Bill 29, we would like to explore the following amendments with you today. The first being the prohibition of planned obsolescence. We have also the introduction of a new warranty of good working order, also an obligation to make parts for maintenance and repair available for goods covered by the new warranty, as well as the introduction of a new system of administrative monetary penalties administered by the Consumer Protection Bureau.

Let's explore the first with the main obligation of Bill 29 trading goods for which obsolescence is planned, which means the use of techniques aimed at reducing the normal operating life is now prohibited.

On the repair side, Bill 29 now prohibits merchants and manufacturers from claiming additional charges on the ground that a part installed as part of the normal maintenance service is not an original part, as well as invoking the fact that the maintenance service was not performed by a party approved by the manufacturer or the merchant. In the same vein, merchants will also be prohibited from using techniques that would make it more difficult for consumers to repair goods. How about the new warranty?

Matthew Angelus (01:40): So, with Bill 29, was introduced a guarantee of good working order. There are two major elements of the guarantee of good working order that we wanted to explore today. The first is that certain appliances and other electronic goods will be subject to basically a floor period, during which they will be required to be in good working order.

This includes stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, washers and dryers, cell phones, TVs, computers, and others. If a good which is subject to the warranty becomes defective during the period, the merchant who sold the good will be responsible not just for the cost of repairing the good, but that will include both parts and labour. In addition, with respect to this warranty, the duration of the floor period will need to be displayed next to the price of the item when it's displayed in store and then mentioned again, whenever an extended warranty relating to the good is sold.

Karl Boulanger (02:28): Right, and merchants and manufacturers will also need to make available for a reasonable time after the purchase, the replacement parts, the repair services as well as the information (in French) required to maintain or repair goods that are covered by this new warranty. This obligation will also apply to diagnostic software as well as updates. Bill 29 also provides that the installation of replacement parts will need to be possible using commonly available tools, without causing irreversible damage to the goods.

I should note that Bill 29 provides an important consequence to merchants and manufacturers that do not respect this obligation. Consumers could be able to request that the goods be repaired free of charge by the merchants and the manufacturers, or replaced by new or reconditioned ones.

Matthew Angelus (03:19): So, in addition to these private remedies, Bill 29 also introduces a new system of administrative sanctions, which will come into force and under which the OPC (Consumer Protection Office) will be able to impose administrative sanctions on merchants who have committed an “objectively observable breach” of the CPA or one of its obligations. and the OPC will be able to do this without having to go through the standard penal procedure, which applies currently, and the two systems will essentially exist in parallel.

Now, these new administrative sanctions can go up to $3,500 a day, per day of offense, and officers and directors of a company can be found to be jointly and severally liable with the company for these fines.

Karl Boulanger (03:59): Right. And speaking of D&Os, any directors, officers, mandataries or representatives of an organization that commits an offense under the CPA or its regulations will be presumed to also have committed the offense with all the related consequences. One mean of defense that will be available to such individuals will be to establish that they exercised due diligence in taking all necessary precautions to prevent the offense. That's a wrap on our brief overview of Bill 29 on planned obsolescence.

Thank you, Matt.

Matthew Angelus (04:33): Thanks, Karl.