Consumer Protection:

Question: What can an Ontario paralegal do to help me if a business won’t honour consumer rights under the Consumer Protection Act?

Answer: If you’re in Ontario and a business is refusing to honour your consumer rights, Reznik Legal Services can help by reviewing your contract, receipts, and communications, identifying whether the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 applies to your situation, and outlining practical next steps such as sending a demand letter, preparing a complaint, and explaining time limits and likely outcomes.   A paralegal can also explain common issues like price changes, defective products, or misleading terms, and help you communicate clearly to seek a refund, repair, replacement, or other relief. For help in Vaughan, Markham, Toronto, North York, Barrie, and across Ontario, call (416) 222-9906 to book a consultation.

In the world of commerce, and in particular matters of consumer transactions, the individual person as a purchasing consumer is often at significant disadvantage in business dealings, especially when such business dealings involve large corporations.  To help balance the playing field, so to help ensure that individual consumers receive fairness during business dealings, consumer protection laws were put into place.

Without the protection of consumer protection statutes, consumers would be subjected to the common law and the age old adage of buyer beware or caveat emptor as such is known in Latin) and often referred to within historical legal precedents.

The Law

The law contains many statutes that contain provisions providing protection to consumers including, among various others:

• The Consumer Protection Act, 2002, S.O. 2002, Chapter 30, Schedule A;
• The Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34; and
• The Sale of Goods Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. S.1.

In addition to the statute laws as above, and despite buyer beware principles, the common law as ruled by judges also contains protections for consumers such as implied warranties requiring that sellers to supply products appropriate for the intended purpose or for the performance of good work.

Common Issues Include: