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Consumer Protection: Statutes Providing Various Rights and Remedies
Question: What protections do consumers have against unfair business practices in Ontario?
Answer: Consumers in Ontario benefit from several laws designed to ensure fairness, particularly the Consumer Protection Act, 2002. This act, along with others like the Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34, provides crucial protections against deceptive practices, ensures written contracts are used in transactions, and mandates that products sold are fit for their intended purpose. At Mole Legal Services, we assist consumers in navigating these laws to safeguard their rights and interests in transactions.
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.
