A Canadian Tire store in Ottawa. The retailer has pleaded guilty to charges of false advertising in Quebec and will pay a $1.29-million fine.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. CTC-A-T has pleaded guilty to charges of false advertising in Quebec and will pay a $1.29-million fine.
Quebec’s Office de la protection du consommateur (OPC) announced the result after a court hearing in Montreal on Friday. The provincial consumer watchdog had filed 74 charges against Canadian Tire for misleading advertising over a six-month period in 2021. The fine includes legal costs.
The province’s Consumer Protection Act forbids companies from advertising products as being on sale, if the prices of those products are not actually discounted.
The OPC found that for seven targeted products it examined, which Canadian Tire advertised on sale, “the products were sold at the regular price in only a very small proportion of cases.” The OPC examined prices shown in Canadian Tire’s flyers and on its website, as well as in three of its stores in the Greater Montreal area.
The Toronto-based retailer admitted guilt related to ads for five of those products: knife sets sold under the Henckels and Cuisinart brands, a Dewalt cordless drill, and Lagostina and Heritage cookware sets.
“The OPC charges relate to five products over a 6-month period five years ago. Importantly, no customers were overcharged and the matter is now concluded,” Canadian Tire spokesperson Stephanie Nadalin wrote in an e-mailed statement on Friday.