(This development was originally pointed out at Rewards Canada blog)
Quebec has introduced Bill 791,
Bill n°791 : An Act to amend the Consumer Protection Act in order to regulate rewards program contracts
The bill introduces three new legislative requirements for loyalty programs that operate in Quebec.
REWARDS PROGRAM CONTRACTS
187.6. Before entering into a rewards program contract, the merchant
must inform the consumer of the conditions applicable to obtaining and using
rewards points.
187.7. Subject to any applicable regulations, any stipulation of or
amendment to the contract providing for an expiry date on the rewards points
obtained by the consumer is prohibited.
187.8. Any stipulation providing that the merchant may retroactively
change the value of the rewards points accumulated by the consumer is
prohibited.
And, there's more.
The consumer protection department would become un régulateur des points...
4.
Section 350 of the Act is amended by adding the following paragraph at
the end:
“(z.6) prescribing the rules respecting rewards program contracts and
rewards points and exempting a merchant, on the conditions it determines,
from the provisions relating to a rewards program contract.”
That means Quebec would, in the coming months, draw up an entire set of its own new regulations.
This appears to be a private members bill, introduced
by an opposition member. Private members bills (
for comedic effort, a very poor Google translation of "private members bill" was deliberately placed here earlier) don't have the force of the government, but a private members bill in Ontario helped force Air Miles to change its expiration policy.
Fun times ahead.