Quebec consumer protection office cancels vacuum cleaner seller’s permit

Quebec's Consumer Protection Office logo. (Source: OPC)

Quebec’s Consumer Protection Office (OPC) has cancelled a vacuum cleaner retailer’s permit for flouting rules about credit contracts and French-language laws.

An OPC news release said that the office’s deputy president ruled that the Lachine-based Rainbow Systems “cannot ensure, in the public interest, the honest and competent exercise of its commercial activities.”

The retailer on Côte-de-Liesse Road was selling vacuum cleaners for $3,939.99, mostly involving credit with 39 payments of $184.67.

Final price in the end: $6,648.12.

“The deputy president takes into consideration, among other things, the consumer complaints received against the trader, the fact that he proceeded by sale by reference and that he concluded credit contracts with consumers, despite the entry into force on Nov. 7, 2024 of a strict prohibition to this effect,” the release reads.

Article 244.7 of Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA) says that an itinerant merchant based in a location outside of Quebec may not offer to enter into or enter into any credit, long-term contract of lease or goods or contract prohibited by regulation with a consumer.

Rainbow Systems is owned by Rexair, LLC, and its world headquarters are in Troy, Michigan.

The news release also says that Rainbow Systems’ contracts and documents were partly in English, despite the CPA requiring them to be provided in French first.

The deputy president also said in his report that the retailer only complied with the CPA when backed into a corner.

“Do we still need to point this out these days?” the deputy president asked. “The CPA is a public policy law designed to protect consumers. However, the trader seems to be taking the obligations imposed by the Law as if they were options or suggestions.”