The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, tabled his bill on Thursday in Quebec to end planned obsolescence for consumer goods and proposes a first “anti-lemon” measure in Canada.
Quebec therefore wants to put a spoke in the wheels of manufacturers tempted to offer lower quality products in order to ensure that consumers are forced to renew them prematurely.
Manufacturers who want to go this route “would face criminal fines of up to $125,000.”
“This is a complex issue that requires finding the right balance between the protection of Quebecers and the competitiveness of businesses,” said the Minister at a press conference.
The project focuses on cars, especially those that regularly cause problems for their owners.
“With this bill, Quebec will become the first in Canada to adopt an anti-lemon measure,” says Simon Jolin-Barrette. Owners of lemons, those new cars that still need repairs, could have their vehicles declared “seriously defective” by the court.
Another measure included in Bill 29: consumers could do business with the garage of their choice rather than with a company imposed by the car manufacturer or with the dealership itself.
The company chosen to carry out the repair will also have to have access to the data concerning the vehicle.
And this detail is very important, insists Jean-François Champagne, president of the Automotive Industries Association of Canada.
“More and more, the vehicles we drive are computers on wheels,” he explains. According to him, not having access to vehicle data makes it very difficult for an independent garage to calibrate a vehicle.
“More and more, we live in a world rich in information, specifies Jean-François Champagne. This information must be made available and shared by the automotive industry. It took legislation to do it. »
The Corporation of Quebec Automobile Dealers was less thrilled with the bill on Thursday. The group is very, very worried.
“Several things like opening the door to domestic motor vehicle maintenance and repair could undermine the safety and reliability of vehicles on the road, a risk that should not be encouraged,” Ian P. Sam Yue Chi, Chairman of the Corporation.
In the case of people who lease their vehicle, they will be entitled to a free independent inspection before the end of their lease.
The bill presented on Thursday aims above all to offer better protection to consumers for all common goods by offering a guarantee of proper functioning during the purchase, whatever the value of the goods.
“A stove that has broken down and cannot be repaired, a computer that cannot be repaired for lack of instructions, a car fresh from the dealership that orders a monthly subscription from the mechanic, these are not situations that are acceptable and the consumer should not pay for it,” Jolin-Barrette said Thursday morning.
The principle of legal warranty already exists in Quebec. This ensures that if a good breaks within an unreasonable time following its purchase, the consumer can request a refund from the merchant.
As soon as a consumer realizes that he has a defective product in his hands, he can ask the manufacturer to repair it, at the latter’s expense.
The manufacturer must do this. If he refuses, his client can file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Office.
Could Quebec offend industrialists with a binding law?
The Quebec Employers Council rightly reminds the Quebec state that it does not weigh heavily in the balance of world trade.
“The government must keep in mind that we must harmonize our regulations with other economic partners and work with merchants to take into account their issues and their realities,” said Thursday Karl Blackburn, president and chief executive officer of the Council, in a press release.
Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette indicated that Quebec is not the first to impose this kind of framework, that several American states are already doing it, as well as Europe and Australia. This does not deprive them of products from major international manufacturers.
The Consumer Protection Act will be amended to include this “legal warranty of proper functioning for certain new commonly used goods”.
Delays will be established, depending on the product, to determine what is considered normal for its proper functioning.
It is also the Office that will investigate if it receives a complaint from a consumer who believes there is a case of planned obsolescence.
However, it will not be easy to prove that manufacturers foresee a short lifespan of their product; the concept of planned obsolescence is not unanimously accepted.
The Minister of Justice believes in it.
“It is unacceptable that a perfectly functional device be equipped with a device that prevents it from functioning normally after a certain time, said Simon Jolin-Barrette. It is equally intolerable for an electronic device to be deliberately designed so that its evolution is limited. »
Asked about this, he cited the example of photocopiers that stop working after making 1000 copies.
“We have all seen this case before,” even supported the Minister of Justice.
Among the concrete measures included in this bill, the obligation for manufacturers to ensure that spare parts for their products are available, if the product should break down, and offered at a reasonable price.
Manufacturers will also need to ensure that consumers know how to perform the repair.
Companies will have at least a year to adapt to the new measures after the law is passed.
With this law, Quebec also wants to make an ecological gesture by ensuring a longer life for material goods. Especially, indicated the Minister of Justice, that consumers often have the reflex to buy a new product rather than repair the broken one, since the repair process can be complicated and expensive.
“There is a link with the protection of the environment, from the moment we promote the circular economy, from the moment we promote the right to repair; what this implies is a less automatic recourse to technical landfill sites, commonly called dumps, “said Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks.
Équiterre welcomed the bill as soon as it was tabled.
“What is promising is that we want to act on the main obstacle to repair, which is the very design of the objects. By making it mandatory to be able to replace and repair parts with common tools, manufacturers are forced to change their practices. It was high time to reverse this burden and give more power to consumers,” argued Amélie Côté, source reduction analyst at Équiterre.
Recall that Liberal Party MP Marwah Rizqy tabled Bill 195 last January, the purpose of which was to fight against planned obsolescence and to assert the right to repair property. The penalties imposed on offending companies in Bill 195 were much higher than those proposed in the government’s Bill 29.
Will give responsibility to the manufacturer to deliver quality merchandise.
If this is not the case, he will have to take back or repair the good, at his expense.
Will determine the amount of time a product should perform well, depending on the category it belongs to.
Give full inspection powers to the Office de la protection du consommateur if a case of planned obsolescence is suspected.
Will determine which goods will be regulated after consultation with the Consumer Protection Office and based on case law.
Impose fines of $125,000 for proven planned obsolescence, or four times the profit made by the offending company from the sale of the asset in question.
Will ensure that anyone who wants to repair an object can do so with common, accessible tools and without having taken an engineering course.
