Consumer law: what the Act provides, and what can be proven
Quebec's Consumer Protection Act imposes rules on merchants that a contract cannot set aside: a warranty that exists by operation of law, cancellation periods, prohibited practices. Those rules only help if you can show when things happened.
The application is for documenting, never for advising: an invoice, a date, a written exchange · a tool of facts, like a camera.
What the Act provides
- A legal warranty: goods must serve for a reasonable time, even after the manufacturer's warranty ends (ss. 37 and 38).
- Cancellation periods specific to certain contracts: distance, successive performance, itinerant merchant.
- Prohibited practices: false representation, misleading information about goods or price.
- Compensation funds in certain sectors, including travel agents.
What can be documented
- The invoice or contract, with its date.
- The method of payment: a bank statement carries a date no one disputes.
- Exchanges with the merchant, with their timestamps.
- The condition of the goods when the problem appeared: a photograph carries its date; a recollection does not.
Learn more: the Library
The Guides do not yet include one specific to consumer law. In the meantime, these two serve anyone who has to prove a date or a delivery:
- Digital evidence that holds up · screenshots, emails, photos: what makes an exhibit verifiable.
- Building your small claims case · where an unresolved consumer dispute ends up.
Questions about consumer law
Short answers, dated and sourced. General information, never legal advice.
- Can a gift card expire in Quebec?
- Can I cancel my cellphone or internet contract before it ends?
- Defects appeared after my renovations, how long am I protected?
- I bought a used car from a dealer and it broke down, am I covered?
- I ordered online and never received my order, what does the law say?
- I want to stop my gym membership or my classes, am I allowed?
- My appliance broke after the warranty ended, do I still have a remedy?
- My trip was cancelled and the agency will not refund, what is the FICAV?
- The business closed or went bankrupt, can I get my money back?
- The merchant has no parts to repair my item, do I have a remedy?
- The seller lied to me about the product, is that a prohibited practice?
- What does filing a complaint with the Office de la protection du consommateur do?