(Toronto) The Competition Tribunal has found that Cineplex made partial price representations by adding a mandatory $1.50 reservation fee to online purchases. The company must now pay a $38.9 million monetary penalty plus legal costs, the Competition Bureau announced in a news release Monday evening.
The Bureau states that “partial pricing involves offering low prices to attract consumers, but then adding mandatory fees.”
The court ruled that consumers had been “misled by the conflicting and incomplete information on Cineplex’s ticket page,” upholding the Competition Bureau’s May 18, 2023 request that Cineplex cease its “misleading advertising.”
In a statement released Monday evening, Cineplex said it will appeal the court’s decision.
“We believe that our guests make informed purchasing decisions, and we maintain that our online booking fees are presented in a manner that fully complies with the spirit and letter of the law,” the company said in the filing.
The amount of 38.9 million is equivalent to the amount collected by the company by imposing online booking fees between June 2022 and December 2023.
“The Tribunal’s decision in Cineplex is a resounding victory for Canadians. It sends a strong message that businesses must not make partial price claims and must display their full prices up front,” said Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, in the Competition Bureau’s news release. “Businesses that fail to comply with the law face significant financial penalties.”
Partial pricing has been a harmful business practice since amendments to the Competition Act came into force on June 24, 2022.