Quebec-Only Messaging Best Practices
Guidelines, rules, and laws around promoting PayBright to Quebec audiences
Overview
As a consumer lender, PayBright is subject to the applicable consumer protection laws and regulations in each province of Canada.
As a merchant provider of PayBright’s lending services, your advertising and disclosures must also meet the requirements under applicable consumer protection law. Quebec’s consumer protection regulations differ significantly from those of other provinces. These requirements are set out in Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act, Chapter P-40.1 (the “Act”) and the Regulation respecting the application of the Consumer Protection Act, Chapter P-40.1, r. 3 (the “Regulation”).
The information presented here is intended to help you understand Quebec’s requirements. It is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, nor is it an exhaustive listing of your compliance obligations in Quebec. Rather, these guidelines summarize four principles which PayBright recommends you consider carefully.
Please send all proposed marketing materials, including banners, landing pages, and messaging, to PayBright for review before deploying them on your website.
The Quebec Consumer Protections Act and Lawful Ad Options
The Act draws an important distinction between advertisements for goods and services and an advertisement concerning credit:
Advertisement Option #1
An advertisement for goods or services is a message designed to promote goods or services in Quebec.
- Examples: Website homepage, product display page, email campaign, Instagram story, etc.
Advertisement Option #2
An advertisement concerning credit is a message designed to promote the availability of credit.
- Examples: Website financing page, website modal that only describes financing terms, price transformation showing installment payment amount, mention of financing in email, mention of financing on website, etc.
As the following Guidelines illustrate in greater detail, the Act prohibits the commingling of elements of these two types of advertisements. With only one narrow exception (see Guideline 1), advertisements for goods or services cannot include any elements related to credit, such as an interest rate, payment amount, or statements like ‘Buy Now, Pay Later.’ Likewise, an advertisement concerning credit cannot include an illustration of goods or services, or messages encouraging the customer to purchase using credit.
Advertisements for Goods and Services
The following Guidelines describe the rules relating to advertisements for goods and services.
Guideline #1:
On a page or advertisement for goods or services (for example, a product detail page), financing can only be marketed with a statement such as “Credit available from PayBright.”
This means a price transformation (installment payment amount) cannot be displayed on a product detail page.
Relevant sections of the Quebec Consumer Protection Act:
*244: No person may in any advertisement of goods or services, advise consumers of the credit offered to them except to mention the availability of credit in the manner prescribed by regulation.
Regulation 3, Section 80: An advertisement for goods or services informing the consumer of the credit offered him may mention the availability of credit one or more of the following ways only:
- by indicating the name, trademark or corporate symbol of a merchant who enters into contracts of credit;
- by using the expression “credit offered”, “credit accepted” or “credit available”;
- by illustrating a credit card
A visual example of the right (and wrong) way to promote PayBright with these regulations and mind can be seen below:
Guideline #2:
In an advertisement, the mention of financing has to be less prominent than the goods or services.
Relevant sections of the Quebec Consumer Protection Act:
232: No merchant, manufacturer or advertiser may, by any means whatever, put greater emphasis, in an advertisement, on a premium than on the goods or services offered.
“Premium” means any goods, services, rebate or other benefit offered or given at the time of the sale of goods or the performance of a service, which may be granted or obtained immediately or in a deferred manner, from the merchant, manufacturer or advertiser, either gratuitously or on conditions explicitly or implicitly presented as advantageous.
A visual example of the right (and wrong) way to promote PayBright with these regulations and mind can be seen below:
Advertisements Concerning Credit
The following describe the rules relating to ads concerning credit.
Guideline #3:
On a page or advertisement for credit (for example, a financing page), there can’t be any illustrations of goods or services or messages urging the consumer to make purchases using credit.
Relevant sections of the Quebec Consumer Protection Act:
245: No person may, in any advertisement concerning credit, urge consumers to obtain goods or services on credit or illustrate goods or services.
A visual example of the right (and wrong) way to promote PayBright with these regulations and mind can be seen below:
Updated over 4 years ago