The Overcompensation Scheme in Québec Consumer Protection Class Actions

Partner Sylvie Rodrigue and senior associate Marie-Ève Gingras have written a piece called “The Overcompensation Scheme in Québec Consumer Protection Class Actions” in a publication by the International Bar Association.

The article discusses the history and reasoning behind Québec’s generous class action and consumer protection regimes, and how this has arguably leveled out the economical imbalance between consumers and merchant/manufacturers.

The pair also examine how the interplay of consumer protection law and class action proceedings led to an overcompensation scheme through the interaction of the absolute presumption of justice, the collective recovery rule, and the denaturation of punitive damages. Seeing that the balance is currently favouring the plaintiffs in consumer protections class actions, Marie-Ève and Sylvie suggest it may be time for the courts’ pendulum to swing back, not to the absolute benefit of the defendants, but certainly to a more balanced and fair position.

You can download and read the “The Overcompensation Scheme in Québec Consumer Protection Class Actions” here.

The article first appeared on the website of the Consumer Litigation Committee of the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association, and is reproduced by kind permission of the International Bar Association, London, UK. © International Bar Association.