The Consumer Protection Bureau

Have you ever heard of the Office de la protection du consommateur (consumer protection bureau or “OPC”)? The OPC is the governmental agency responsible for informing consumers in Quebec of their rights and protecting them.

The OPC can help you in several ways: it can inspect, investigate, and take legal action against merchants, provide information to consumers, and help settle disputes.

Inspecting, Investigating and Taking Legal Action

The OPC oversees merchants to ensure that consumers’ rights are respected. To do this, it can do three things :  

• investigate business practices and conduct,
• inspect places of business and documents,
• take legal action against merchants to make them stop certain practices that are prohibited under the Consumer Protection Act, such as giving false or misleading information about a product or service.

Informing consumers

General and personalized information

The OPC provides general information on its website and by phone to help you understand your rights and responsibilities as a consumer.

It also offers personalized information to help you resolve specific problems with a merchant.

You can download your personalized information kit directly from the OPC’s website.

You can also request information by phone, email, mail, or by visiting one of the OPC’s offices in person.

Information on Merchants

The OPC lets you consult background information on merchants.

By consulting a merchant’s profile, you will be able to know whether:

• the OPC has previously carried out interventions with the merchant,
• consumers have sent demand letters, how many were sent, and what they were about,
• the merchant holds the required license to operate their business.

This information can help you decide whether you want to buy or lease a good or service with the merchant or not.

Helping consumers resolve problems

Parle consommation: a tool to negotiate online

The OPC offers you access to the online platform Parle consommation (available in French only).

This free platform allows consumers and merchants to negotiate together to resolve their problems.

Receiving consumers’ complaints

If you’re unable to resolve a problem directly with a merchant, you can file a complaint against the merchant with the OPC.

To do so, you’ll first need to speak with an OPC agent by phone. They’ll explain the steps to take. You may be asked to provide documents related to your complaint, such as your receipt, contract, warranty documents, etc.

Important: The OPC is not a court. It cannot force a merchant to resolve the problem or force a solution.