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The Consumers Council of Canada

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The Council works to improve consumers’ ability to navigate marketplaces affecting everyday life.

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Canadian consumers eager for innovative approaches to resolving marketplace problems

Canadian governments can better handle consumer complaints and work more capably with consumer organizations, to promote and protect consumer interests.

Canadian governments can better handle consumer complaints and work more capably with consumer organizations, to promote and protect consumer interests, new research by the Consumers Council of Canada found.

Resources at many consumer protection regulatory agencies have dwindled over the years, forcing them to rely heavily on receiving complaints as a method of observing and regulating marketplace conduct. Yet the Council’s recently released report Super Complainers: Greater Public Inclusiveness in Government Consumer Complaint Handling determined that consumers believe “government agencies are only somewhat or not very responsive at all” to their complaints.

The research found that most Canadians have a high degree of trust in governments to handle and resolve their complaints about misrepresented, unhealthy or unsafe goods and services, but they have difficulty finding the government or self-regulatory agency responsible for taking their complaints, and are often dissatisfied with the follow-up and reporting when they do find the right agency. Nonetheless, the research found consumers trust courts, consumer organizations and government more than lawyers, news media, businesses, industry-provided arbitrators and social media as institutions able to help them with a complaint.

A key finding of the research was that consumers place high trust in consumer organizations to handle and help with their complaints.

“Our organization was all at once surprised, troubled and pleased to find Canada’s consumers trust consumer organizations as much as government agencies to handle and resolve complaints,” said Consumers Council of Canada President Don Mercer. “Consumer groups have earned the respect of Canadians, but are poorly resourced in many cases to help with complaints. Canada is not like the U.K., for example, where consumer groups receive substantial government financial support to help consumers with their problems and provide education.”

The Council’s research explored Canadian consumer views regarding the effectiveness of current government and self-regulatory complaint handling systems and their appetite for more innovative, inclusive and effective programs. Information was gathered from consumers directly through an online quantitative survey conducted by national research firm Environics Research Group, which included results from 2,000 respondents from across the country.

The research explored some cases of new, innovative approaches globally to deal with consumer complaints. This included: the U.K. “Super Complaints” legislation; a U.K.-originated, online consumer complaint collection, distribution and management service that entered Canada in November 2018; and the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s interactive public complaint database.

“The U.K. government has granted selected consumer groups the ability to launch complaints on behalf of all consumers related to systemic problems in the marketplace that harm consumers,” said Mercer. “This process has delivered results for U.K. consumers in a number of cases already.”

“Consumers Council of Canada invites Canadian consumers to share their marketplace experiences through a system accessible at its Internet homepage. That system refers consumers to about 60 authorized consumer complaint handlers in Canada. Quebec’s consumer groups – Option consommateurs and the affiliated organizations that form Union des consommateurs – offer consumers street-level assistance with their problems.

Consumers Council of Canada has received funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s Contributions Program for Non-profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations. The views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada or the Government of Canada.

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Research Announcements, Right-Representation, Right-Redress

Canada lags other modern economies that require, standardize unit pricing displays at retail

Canadian retailers that standardize their displays of unit pricing and eliminate misleading price presentations stand to gain a competitive advantage by developing greater customer loyalty.

Canadian retailers that standardize their displays of unit pricing and eliminate misleading price presentations stand to gain a competitive advantage by developing greater customer loyalty, new research by Consumers Council of Canada found.

The Council based this conclusion, found in its just-released report Unit Pricing: Time for a National Approach?, on a 2,000-person national web survey and focus groups conducted by Environics Research and on a review of academic literature and interviews with experts.

“Confusing and inaccurate price presentations send a clear signal to consumers that a business cannot be trusted – that they should be on-guard,” said Council President Don Mercer. “It should be obvious to retailers that sloppy, inconsistent and misleading price presentations are bad for business and undermine consumer confidence. But old, bad habits are still dying hard.”

While the main focus of the research was not to research the scope of pricing misrepresentation or inaccuracy or catch out Canadian retailers, the Council’s research easily identified that shelf- and online-pricing presentations abound in the Canadian marketplace even among major retailers, with or without provincial law in place defining retailers’ responsibilities.

Inconsistent unit pricing which may mislead consumers also appears on the website of Canadian online retailers, which presumably use computer-driven algorithms to produce these outcomes.

“Many Canadian retailers are voluntarily offering their customers unit pricing information at point of purchase – this is good – but they aren’t doing a very consistent, helpful job of it and they appear to ignore well-thought-out, existing standards for doing so,” said Mercer.

The Council’s report recommends:

Provincial-federal governments collaborate with retailers to explore methods of delivering unit pricing information to Canadian consumers.
Provincial consumer ministries consider directly regulating price presentations, as Province of Quebec does now.
Competition Bureau of Canada could provide leadership for a multi-stakeholder approach to encouraging accurate and effective unit price labelling.
Measurement Canada, which has jurisdiction over accurate price representations concerning quantity of product, could enter into agreements with other government ministries to monitor unit price shelf-labelling and price accuracy as observed on-shelf and at purchase.
Because retailers stand to gain from improved consumer loyalty and confidence, they could develop competitive advantage by adopting standards-based pricing displays and educating their customers about how to use the service.
Educators of all kinds that teach consumers about household budgeting should focus on the best ways to make price comparisons and highlight common ways unethical retailers manipulate price presentations to make more money from them.

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Research Announcements, Standards Development, Weights and Measures, Focus-Digital Economy, Right-Information, Right-Choice, Right-Education

Consumers nervous to get good, useful advice about energy performance of their homes

Canadians want clear, simple, trustworthy and actionable information to assist them when they buy a new or resale home and to assist them in making decisions to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

Consumers Council of Canada released its report Home Energy Labels: How well do they serve consumers? with this finding, after consulting consumers and industry stakeholders.

The research set out to determine what consumers would expect from a label describing the energy performance of a house.

Consumers are presented with information on labels to support many purchasing decisions, from food labelling to the energy consumption of home appliances. However, when it comes to arguably the largest investment of their lives – their homes – consumers often receive little reliable information about its environmental impact, operating costs, or its potential for improved energy efficiency.

The Council’s research focused on the utility and functionality of existing home energy labels in Canada. More specifically, it looked at how consumers understand these labels and how they factor into renovation and home purchasing decisions, among other actions.

Its report identified the information consumers draw from the labels, how it is used, and what additional information consumers want and need to make informed decisions and to act on their decisions.

While the Government of Canada’s EnerGuide label is highly regarded by industry stakeholders and is recognized by many Canadian consumers, a national survey of 1,000 people conducted for the Council by Oraclepoll Research Ltd. found about 60 percent of respondents could not identify or identify accurately the Canadian home energy labels presented to them. The most recognized home energy labels were the EnerGuide and ENERGY STAR labels, as nearly half (45%) recognized the EnerGuide label and 40% recognized the ENERGY STAR label.

“Achieving high levels of brand recognition for any product is tough,” said Consumers Council of Canada President Don Mercer. “Clearly the government has a highly recognized program, and we hope this research’s suggestions for improvement will lead to future label designs that will even better command consumers’ attention as being useful.”

The ideal scenario from a consumer perspective for a top-quality home energy label includes:

having a clearly identified, trustworthy issuer.
being easily obtained within a reasonable timeframe.
providing information and presentations that can be delivered in a variety of ways (e.g. print, application service-based) and connects consumers to additional guidance as needed.
a presentation of how components of a home function and affect a homes’ overall energy use.
useful information to help the homeowner improve their home’s energy efficiency.
a simple presentation of costs, benefits and value a consumer can expect from home upgrades.

This latest research follows on the Council’s 2018 research report Mandatory Home Energy Rating and Disclosure for Existing Houses: Opportunities and Risks for Consumersand 2017 report Incenting Energy Efficient Retrofits: Risks and Opportunities for Consumers, both of which found widespread support for government programs that help people understand and improve the energy performance of their homes.

“Consumers feel challenged to modify their homes to do their part to both moderate and prepare for the impacts of climate change,” said Mercer. “They need trustworthy, actionable information to help them confidently make good decisions.”

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Research Announcements, Housing & Shelter, Focus-Climate Change, Right-Basic Needs, Right-Information, Right-Choice, Right-Education, Right-Safe Environment, Right-Privacy

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OUR AIM IS AN EFFICIENT, EQUITABLE, SAFE AND EFFECTIVE MARKETPLACE

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Consumers eager for innovative ways to resolve marketplace problems

Canada lags behind at requiring standardized unit pricing displays at retail

Consumers nervous to get useful advice about energy performance of their homes

Extended product protections often misunderstood by consumers

Canadians enjoy little protection against prices, practices of instalment lenders

Consumer Experiences with Rent-to-Own

Featured Events

Latest News

Canadian consumers eager for innovative approaches to resolving marketplace problems

Canada lags other modern economies that require, standardize unit pricing displays at retail

Consumers nervous to get good, useful advice about energy performance of their homes

PRIVACY POLICY | SITE MAP | SEARCH

© 2016 Consumers Council of Canada

WORKING TOWARDS AN IMPROVED MARKETPLACE FOR CONSUMERS IN CANADA

OUR AIM IS AN EFFICIENT, EQUITABLE, SAFE AND EFFECTIVE MARKETPLACE

Join the Consumers Council Public Interest Network

The Consumers Council of Canada

Have a consumer experience to share?

Consumers eager for innovative ways to resolve marketplace problems

Canada lags behind at requiring standardized unit pricing displays at retail

Consumers nervous to get useful advice about energy performance of their homes

Extended product protections often misunderstood by consumers

Canadians enjoy little protection against prices, practices of instalment lenders

Consumer Experiences with Rent-to-Own

Featured Events

Latest News

PRIVACY POLICY | SITE MAP | SEARCH

© 2016 Consumers Council of Canada

WORKING TOWARDS
AN IMPROVED MARKETPLACE
FOR CONSUMERS IN CANADA

Have a consumer
experience to share?