Two years ago, a brave consumer launched a class action lawsuit against Canada Dry on behalf of all drinkers of ginger ale. The label of the ginger ale indeed claims that the drink “contains real ginger”. However, there is not, he claimed.
The bottler has demonstrated that his ginger ale contained “derivatives” of ginger. A settlement was quickly reached. Quebec consumers who bought at least five bottles in previous years were entitled to a bubbly $ 7.50 refund – up to a maximum of $ 650,000, from which lawyers’ fees, roughly a third of the total, had to be deducted. .
Canada Dry has not admitted any responsibility and has not changed its labeling. “A fair and reasonable settlement,” said one of the lawyers.
Ah good ? I don’t really know what great has been accomplished here, other than funding lawyers, as nothing has changed.
The same claim to defend consumer rights is at work in the collective action that has just been authorized against all private schools in Quebec.
Because you see, these schools were closed for many days last year and failed to provide student-consumers with the service their parents paid for.
Which raises two questions in my mind.
Is school a kind of 7 Up?
And: who will really benefit from this business if it ever succeeds?
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Let’s start with the 7 Up. In Quebec, as you know, private schools are only partially so. The state assumes more than half of the cost of education. The parent pays around $ 5,000 basic, plus extracurricular activities.
In March 2020, I apologize for reminding you, the whole world has closed shop. Including, for a time, schools. Some students returned to primary school briefly in May. The other levels remained in virtual mode until the start of the September school year.
Obviously, parents paid for services that their children did not receive. First when the school was closed; then when it worked as best it could by Zoom.
The logic of the lawsuit: when my gym is closed, I do not pay my membership.
The catch is that school is not a discretionary activity. It is compulsory up to the age of 16. And all the schools were closed for a while, and then taught at a distance. By order of the government. And because of force majeure.
If these parents had sent their children to public school, they would not have gotten more “services”. They chose to obtain this compulsory education by paying; it didn’t make it more feasible for these schools. The costs were basically the same: personnel, buildings, maintenance. We can even argue that they were superior, given the technological and logistical adaptations.
Parents who send their children to the public might as well sue the government: obviously they did not receive the level of education expected in the programs, even though it was. free.
But a bit like when I buy a 7 Up I demand to have what is written on the bottle, if I pay for the partially private education of my children in a pandemic … I would be entitled to a discount, even in cases of force majeure, even when the entire planet stops spinning. This private establishment (which the parent is sure to praise in living room conversations) will have to bear the brunt, that’s his problem.
I have the right !
We are in fact faced with a classic case of ” I have the dua “. It looks better than anti-masquism and anti-taxism, it can be seen on TV, but it comes from the same filthy individualism.
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Suppose for a moment that this consumerist view of education is correct. It would be very naive to believe that collective action would be of any use to repair this “injustice”.
First, what fault, or what antisocial behavior of private schools are we trying to correct here? All this action seeks is to shift the inevitable cost of the pandemic onto schools.
More importantly, at the end of the day, if a judge says: parent, you are entitled to a refund of $ 250 or $ 500 or, why not, $ 1000; or if, as is often the case, there is a general rule to avoid an even more expensive lawsuit, where will the money go?
If we trust the precedents, lawyers will receive a third of the sum for their defense of the inalienable right of the consumer.
We will have mobilized legal resources, confiscated precious court time, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on damn lawyers’ fees.
And at the end of the day, parents will be able to buy a few bottles of this exquisite drink with ginger derivatives, which is said to be the champagne of the ginger ales.