The Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce has pushed for a balanced, common-sense approach to new provincial regulations around business contracts and sales practices.  The Langley Chamber is standing up to make sure consumer protection rules target the real problem: bad behaviour, not legitimate businesses working hard to serve their customers.

The BC Government has passed a new Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, which will significantly change how certain consumer contracts are regulated in the province. These changes affect what is allowable for several things including direct sales in consumer’s homes and door-to-door sales, subscription contracts, auto renewal requirements and more.  Read more > 

While we fully support the goal of protecting people from predatory or unscrupulous practices, the current direction risks punishing legitimate businesses. By banning entire industries or products from direct sales, the government lumps responsible operators in with bad actors and focuses on the product being sold rather than on the behaviour that actually causes harm. This broad brush approach is unfair and creates unnecessary red tape for honest businesses.

Instead, in a detailed submission to the Ministry, we advocated for more flexibility and exemptions that allow businesses to sell their products and services in the variety of ways customers want — whether at home, online, or through third-party locations. We also emphasized the need to account for the real, hard costs that businesses face by increasing allowable down payments and ensuring that refund rules don’t unduly penalize companies when customers cancel.

This issue has wide-reaching impacts across the economy. Any business that relies on sales contracts, subscriptions, in-home sales, or temporary retail locations could be caught up in these rules — from fitness providers and trades companies to retailers and service firms.

Questions?  Comments?  Contact the Chamber >