A new provision in Manitoba’s Consumer Protection Act now prevents companies from doing unfair and sometimes unethical business with consumers.

According to Jan Forster, acting director of Manitoba Family Services and Consumer Affairs’ Consumer Protection Office, fairness prompted the provision.

“We wanted clarity (between businesses and consumers),” she said. “A contract should be clear and simple so consumers know what they are agreeing to.”

Negative-option billing is a practice wherein the company provides goods or services to consumers automatically, and consumers must pay for the service or inform the company that they wish to cancel.

The provision to the Act, which is part of Manitoba’s five-year Let’s Make a Better Deal Plan, makes changes to the way contracts are presented to a consumer: the contracts will have to use more plain language so the average citizen can understand exactly what they are agreeing to.

It also prohibits businesses from unilaterally renewing a consumer’s contract through a negative-option billing.

Forster said that they don’t receive too many complaints about negative-option billing, but thinks that some people do not realize there is anything they can do.

“Periodically, negative-option billing is something that came to our attention,” said Forster. “Some citizens are more vulnerable than others.”

According to Gloria Kowbel, a self-employed freelance data entry clerk, many people will not make the effort to cancel a subscription if it is not a priority in their lives.

“ I thought they were waiting for a response from me but they weren’t – they just renewed (my subscription) anyways.

Gloria Kowbel, freelance data entry clerk

Last year Kowbel’s subscription to Norton Antivirus was renewed without her permission. She said that the company had sent emails and reminders that it was time for the product to be renewed, but she thought that if she ignored them the company would see she was not interested.

“I thought they were waiting for a response from me but they weren’t – they just renewed it anyways,” she said.

Kowbel did not mind the renewal because she required the service for her computer, but she was surprised the company did not wait for her approval before renewing the one-year contract.

“When you’re short of cash and they do something like that it’s not fair,” she said.

Kowbel knows that in many instances this is a way for companies to make some extra money.

“It’s not until you see the extra charges on the bill that you realize that needs to be cancelled,” she said. “Even if they don’t cancel right away, even for a month or two, the company still makes that money.”

Robert Warren, I.H. Asper executive director for entrepreneurship of the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship, believes that making contracts readable to the average person will help consumers who usually do not understand or pay attention to what they are signing.

“Ninety-five per cent of consumers fall into that category and in the five per cent of consumers who actually pay attention to their choices – half of them actually act on it (and make a complaint),” he said.

Warren also believes that businesses should not be losing money because of the provisions as long as they adapt their outlook and sell their products creatively, adding that he thinks the new provision will create better relationships between business and consumer.

“If my consumers are well informed and comfortable with me then they will be more likely to purchase something than if they feel like they are being manipulated or taken advantage of,” he said.