Competition Bureau investigating Leon’s and The Brick about marketing practices

The Competition Bureau of Canada has obtained a court order to gather information and advance an ongoing investigation into Leon’s Furniture Limited and its subsidiary, The Brick Warehouse LP.

The order, granted by the Federal Court, requires Leon’s and The Brick to produce records and written information that are relevant to the Bureau’s investigation. The Competition Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency that protects and promotes competition for the benefit of Canadian consumers and businesses.

The investigation relates to certain alleged marketing practices such as:

urgency cue claims related to the end dates of sales or time limited nature of promotions that may be false or misleading;

potentially inflated regular prices used when making savings claims; and

sale claims with no specification as to the amount of the discount, and prices displayed in a distinct font colour, which may create the false or misleading impression that people are benefitting from a sale.

The Bureau is looking to determine if Leon’s and The Brick’s marketing practices raise concerns under the deceptive marketing provisions of the Competition Act.  There is no conclusion of wrongdoing at this time. Together, Leon’s and The Brick operate one of Canada’s largest networks of home furniture, appliance, electronics, and mattress stores, as well as several e-commerce websites such as furniture.ca.

Urgency cue claims such as “countdown clocks” and “limited time only” could be false or misleading if they create the impression that consumers must purchase a product quickly prior to the end of the promotion when in fact the promotion is renewed or replaced by another promotion.

The misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act prohibit making any kind of false or misleading claim to promote a product, service or business interest.

The ordinary selling price provisions of the Competition Act aim to ensure that when products are promoted at sale prices, consumers are not misled by a reference to inflated regular prices.