Bill no. 29 (Option consommateurs' comments)

The new warranty of good working order introduced by the bill poses a risk of reducing consumer protection. We fear that, in practice, this new form of warranty will have the effect of setting aside the legal warranty already in force in the Consumer Protection Act, which stipulates that a good must have a reasonable life.

As a solution, we recommend that the bill stipulate that the duration of the warranty of good working order set by regulation must be at least as long as the reasonable life already generally recognized by the Consumer Protection Act, and that it may in no case exclude the application of the other forms of legal warranty provided for in the Act.

Furthermore, we believe that the government should take the opportunity presented by Bill 29 to address the problems encountered by consumers seeking to enforce the legal warranty.

As such, we propose imposing time limits on merchants for the performance of their obligations, as well as measures to prevent them from transferring liability to other players in the supply chain. In addition, we recommend that the new anti-citron warranty be extended to cover goods other than automobiles.

Bill 29 must also be amended to promote access to repair. In particular, Option consommateurs recommends that information on repairing goods be freely available on the Internet. We also recommend that the obligation to make spare parts and repair services available extend beyond the reasonable life of a good already recognized by law.

Option consommateurs also questions the effectiveness of Bill 29's measure to display the duration of the warranty of good working order. In our view, a repairability index could have a greater effect on the market, by enabling consumers to opt for the purchase of a more durable appliance model, thereby increasing demand for durable appliances and gradually prompting manufacturers to change their practices.

Finally, we propose to increase the penalties applicable to offending companies to dissuade large multinationals from ignoring Quebec law, and to substantially increase the budget of the Office de la protection du consommateur to ensure compliance with these new obligations.