U.S./Canada Price Gap Legislation Coming this Fall?
In a follow-up to an announcement in the federal government’s Spring 2014 budget, watch for draft legislation this fall. Electro-Federation Canada (EFC) is work with CME on this issue to ensure that the original proposal remains fair to businesses.
CME’s approach would be to offer suggestions for improvement including the following:
• raise the 10% threshold (if a good has more than a 10% difference in price in the original proposal it can be investigated by the competition commissioner) to 25%. The 25% allows for differences in currency as well as higher operating costs in Canada including regulatory, labour, energy, and taxes.
• put in place a minimum threshold on the price of a good to eliminate frivolous claims on low value items. such as $5.00. this would eliminate immaterial claims of discrepancy.
• eliminate retail listing fees, which are anti-consumer/industry. Many large retailers charge listing fees to stocking products, which drives up prices for Canadian consumer. In the U.S. where there is more competition, this is not a common practice.
