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ARTICLE · 20 OCTOBER 2022

Drip Pricing Practices Prohibited Under Canada's Competition Act

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As a result of the June 23, 2022 amendments (the "Amendments") to the Canadian Competition Act (the "Act"), drip pricing is now expressly recognized as a deceptive marketing practice...

CanadaAntitrust/Competition Law
Reema Mahbubani
Reema Mahbubani
Eric Dufour
Eric Dufour
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As a result of the June 23, 2022 amendments (the "Amendments") to the Canadian Competition Act (the "Act"), drip pricing is now expressly recognized as a deceptive marketing practice and prohibited under the civil (subsection 74.01(1.1)) and criminal (subsection 52(1.3)) provisions of the Act.

Drip pricing is the practice of offering a product or service at an initial price that is ultimately unattainable due to (non-governmental-imposed) fixed fees and charges (e.g., booking fees, order processing fees, service fees, or facility charges) that are either hidden in fine print, inadequately disclosed, or added later in the purchasing process.

To date, the Competition Bureau (the "Bureau") has brought six enforcement actions in connection with drip pricing practices in the car rental, furniture, travel and online ticketing industries. These actions were brought under the civil deceptive marketing provisions of the Act on the basis that the initial price

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