BC Court Refuses To Certify Smart Meter Radio Emissions Class Action

The BC Supreme Court's recent refusal to certify a class action in Davis v British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority re-affirms that although the evidentiary threshold for certifying general causation as a common issue is not high, it is also not non-existent.

Background

As previously discussed, in a 2013 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the argument that courts must take a "rigorous" approach to class certification and confirmed that plaintiffs need only show a "credible" or "plausible" methodology to try issues of loss or harm on a class-wide basis in price-fixing class actions. Lower courts in BC and Alberta have subsequently extended the requirement to show a "plausible methodology" to causation issues in product liability and brokerage class actions. In particular, according to the BC Court of Appeal, there is no requirement for a "gold standard" study proving a causal connection at the certification stage.