MARCOTTE – The Banks And Provincial Laws

On September 19, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada delivered decisions in three related appeals from the Québec Court of Appeal that have come to be known collectively as "Marcotte." These class actions arose out of a very narrow issue concerning the requirements under the Québec Consumer Protection Act (CPA) for the disclosure of foreign exchange conversion charges by credit card issuers. All of the defendant credit card issuers, but for one, were banks, thereby giving rise to the constitutional law issue whether provincial law could apply to the credit-granting powers of banks under the federal banking power in section 91(15) of the Constitution Act, 1867.

Marcotte also considered the qualification of the representative plaintiffs in the class actions and the issue of punitive damages. Those issues are addressed in two of our blog posts, which may be found on the Canadian Class Actions Monitor and the Canadian Appeals Monitor.