Monday is the first opportunity for consumers to sign up to receive a $25 gift card from Loblaws related to the grocer's role in fixing the price of bread for more than a decade, but the agreement comes with some fine print.
Late last year, Loblaws announced it would give out the cards as an olive branch to customers who were angered by the grocer's admission that it had conspired to inflate the price of packaged bread between 2002 and 2015.
Customers were directed to a website, loblawcard.ca, which was, prior to Monday, short on details. However, the website is now updated with a sign-up form and much more details on the program.
For the first time, the retailer has included a full list of products that saw their prices hiked up. They are packaged bread products from:
Ben's Bread.
Bon Matin Bread.
Country Harvest Bread.
Dempster's Bread.
D'Italiano Bread.
Gadoua Bread.
McGavin's Bread.
No Name Bread.
Old Mill Bread.
POM Bread.
Weston Bread.
Wonder Bread.
Anyone who purchased any of those products at any Loblaws store — which includes brands like No Frills, Superstore, Provigo, Zehrs and many others — between 2002 and March of 2015 is entitled to participate, and no proof of purchase is required.
Loblaws says it reserves the right to limit the number of cards that will be issued under the program, although the site doesn't include a number where it might be capped.
Previously, the company had suggested that it was expecting between three and five million Canadians would sign up, bringing the price tag to up to $150 million worth of gift cards.
The website now outlines all the requirements for the offer. (David Donnelly/CBC)
The cards will have no expiry date, Loblaws says, but the same can't be said for the program itself: anyone who wants to participate must do so by May 8.
The card also has to be used for food products. Holders can't use them to buy alcohol, tobacco, gasoline or cash withdrawals at in-store ATMs.
The size, scope and longevity of the price-fixing scandal has prompted a number of class-action lawsuits against the company, and Loblaws says at the top of the website that participating in the rebate program doesn't preclude someone from participating in one of those suits.
But fine print at the bottom of the sign-up form itself makes it clear that if you sign up, $25 will be deducted from any potential payouts from lawsuits down the line.
"Agreeing to this release will not impact your right to participate in any class actions relating to an overcharge on the price of packaged bread," the fine print reads.
"However, doing so will mean that twenty-five (25) dollars will be deducted from any compensation that you may otherwise be entitled to receive in any class action judgment against, or settlement with, Loblaw relating to any overcharge on the price of packaged bread in the period between January 1, 2002 and March 1, 2015."
Participating in the program also requires consumers to give up a lot of personal information, including their name, date of birth, address and other contact information — mainly because the company needs that in order to mail out the cards in the first place.
While data like that is a goldmine to retailers, Loblaws says it will not use the information for marketing purposes. "We will not use the personal Information provided to participate in the Loblaw Card Program to market to you, unless we have already obtained your consent to do so," the company says in the agreement.
Despite the strings attached, professor Steve Tissenbaum of the Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto suspects that millions of Canadians will sign up, and turn a blind eye to any downsides in the process.
"There will be millions of people that will take advantage of getting the $25," he said in an interview, "but I don't know how many people are upset."
Many will simply take the offer of what appears to be free money. "If someone wants to give me some money — I will take it."
Today customers can begin registering to receive Loblaw Companies’ $25 gift cards, the grocer’s apology for its role in a bread price-fixing scheme cooked up alongside several other companies. The gift cards can be used to buy items sold in their grocery stores across Canada. Loblaw has said it expects as many as six million Canadians will receive the gift card and it will cost the company up to $150 million in total payout.
To register for the gift card you need to be at least 18 year old and have purchased certain bread products. No documentation is required as part of the registration and Loblaws indicates it has the right to limit the number of gift cards made available. Full details and the registration entry form are available at a website made public today.
When the announcement was made in December 2017, Canadians were able to sign up to receive email notice once registration opened. But even if you didn’t already sign up for the email, you can still claim your $25 gift card as long as you complete your registration by May 8, 2018.
Most Canadians were surprised when Loblaw Co. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. confirmed last month that they were behind a tip-off to the Competition Bureau about an alleged industry-wide bread price-fixing scheme that lasted from 2001 to 2015. For 14 years, Loblaw Co., Weston’s bakery division along with other grocery retailers coordinated bread price increases.
Some estimate Loblaw pocketed a whopping $1 billion in extra profit made on bread bought by all Canadians at the grocery chain over the 14 years. “We don’t believe $25 is much in the way of compensation,” says Bruce Cran, president of the Consumer’s Association of Canada (CAC), based in Vancouver. “A gift card for a few loaves of bread is not enough accountability for the length of time this scheme went on.”
Other groups across Canada agree and class action suits have been launched by senior citizen and anti-poverty activists, as well as other groups in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba, including a recent one by Derek Nepinak, a former grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. Nepinak is the lead plaintiff in a $1 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of all Canadians who purchased bread from the named grocers since January 2001. The case is one of many cropping up against multiple Canadian grocers, including Loblaw Companies Ltd., its parent company George Weston Ltd., baking giant Canada Bread Co., as well as Walmart Canada, Metro, and Giant Tiger Stores Ltd. He is being represented by Winnipeg-based law firm Boudreau Law but there are others in motion by Strosberg Sasso Sutts LLP and Merchant Law.
There have been rumblings that Canadians shouldn’t take the $25 gift card because it could disqualify them from participating in the class action suits, which hold out the possibility of a much, much bigger payoff than the gift cards. However, lawyers as well as company spokespeople say you can claim the gift card without fear of being barred from future legal settlements. In fact, Loblaw itself noted that the $25 gift card should not be looked at as the only estimate of legal damages.
Lawyer Anthony Merchant of Merchant Law, whose firm is also working on a class action suit against Loblaw, recommends that Canadians register for both the gift card and class action lawsuit. “Take the $25 and sign on to our class action suit as well,” says Merchant. “The gift card is $25 in your hand. I don’t foresee Loblaw putting any requirements on claiming it and Canadians should be able to claim the gift card as well as have a share of any future class action suit settlement if they join.”
It’s likely that the class action lawsuits (as well as any other lawsuits) against Loblaw and other grocers involved in this price-fixing scheme will take months, if not years, to wind their way through the courts and fairly substantial monetary settlements and penalties are likely to be awarded.
“The punishment has to be sufficiently severe to make up for this conduct because on many other occasions they’re likely getting away with it,” says Merchant.
MORE ABOUT LOBLAW
Loblaw has officially opened registration for customers to claim a $25 gift card as compensation for bread price-fixing in the grocery industry, but the fine print shows there will be a catch for anyone who signs up.
The catch isn’t as major as some feared, as Loblaw says individuals will still be permitted to participate in future class-action lawsuits against the company. However, anyone who does garner a future monetary award from Loblaw will be docked $25 from the payout, the company says.
In other words, taking Loblaw’s $25 card now means you can still participate in a lawsuit, but $25 will be subtracted from your individual settlement.
Loblaw began accepting registration for the card online Monday. It also revealed that cardholders will not be able to apply the $25 to the purchase of tobacco, alcohol, gas or anything at Loblaw’s Mobile Shop or Cooking School.
Additionally, Loblaw said it reserves the right to limit the total number of cards issued.
Anyone who signs up for the card must agree to “release and forever discharge Loblaw… from any and all claims or causes of action... to the extent of twenty-five dollars,” the Loblaw claim site says.
The company says agreeing to the release “will not impact your right to participate in any class actions relating to an overcharge on the price of packaged bread."
In addition to opening up registration, Loblaw revealed the 12 brands involved in the bread overcharging case from Jan. 1, 2002 to Mar. 1, 2015. They are:
Ben’s Bread
Bon Matin Bread
Country Harvest Bread
Dempster’s Bread
D’Italiano Bread
Gadoua Bread
McGavin’s Bread
No Name Bread
Old Mill Bread
POM Bread
Weston Bread
Wonder Bread
Loblaw’s cardholder agreement indicates that participants will be required to activate and sign their gift cards, and may need to sign a receipt when using the cards in-store.
The grocery chain says personal information collected through the program will not be used for marketing purposes, “unless we have already obtained your consent to do so.”
The program is open to anyone 18 or older in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I. and Saskatchewan, and to individuals 19 or older in B.C., New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut and Yukon.
When it was announced in December, the $25 was described by Loblaw as a gift card. But the form to claim the card, released Monday, requires consumers to waive their rights to the first $25 of any future financial settlement that may arise.
Lawyers in a proposed class action lawsuit against Loblaw Cos. and other grocers were in Ontario Superior Court on Monday arguing that restrictions Loblaw has attached to claiming the $25 card should be struck down.
Qualifying for a $25 gift card from Loblaw Cos. Ltd. issued as a goodwill gesture to help offset 14 years of price-fixing has turned out to be more complicated than shoppers were originally led to believe, and has already led to a court challenge.
“It’s an important issue and Loblaws, of course, delayed telling people about the fact that they were going to ask for a release.”
“We made the argument that people are being misled because they thought this was a gift card, that it was actually a goodwill gesture by Loblaws, and it turns out it’s not,” Wingfield said.
Loblaw expects that as many as six million people will apply for the $25 card and plans to treat that as a $150-million reduction in any damages that might be awarded, according to David R. Wingfield, also a partner at Strosberg Sasso Sutts.
“We don’t think it’s a gift card at all. There is no gift here, that is part of the problem, this is a coupon,” said Jay Strosberg, a partner at Strosberg Sasso Sutts LLP. “It’s a coupon to be used in their stores and in return they want a reduction in their liability.”
By offering the $25 coupon in exchange for a reduction in liability, Loblaw is attempting to dictate the terms of a future settlement, Strosberg added.
“Maybe the consumer would rather have $25 in cash to pay for gasoline or maybe the consumer would rather have $25 to pay for utilities.”
Loblaw also stands to profit from issuing the coupons, as they can be used only in stores in the Loblaw family of companies.
The company is also collecting names, addresses and birth dates from customers who want to qualify for a coupon — which in itself is valuable information, Strosberg pointed out.
“All of it is structured to benefit the Loblaw group of companies. It’s not structured to benefit anyone other than them.”
Strosberg Sasso Sutts filed a class action lawsuit against Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and other grocers in December, following an admission by Loblaw that it had been fixing the price of bread with competitors for 14 years, a crime that can result in fines of up to $25 million and imprisonment to a maximum term of 14 years, or both.
The class action lawsuit has not been certified. Strosberg said Loblaw has indicated it would not file a statement of defence until a judge agrees the class action lawsuit can proceed.
Loblaw turned itself in to the Competition Bureau in December to win immunity from prosecution.
“We are hearing that customers understand and appreciate the value we are offering,” a Loblaw spokesperson, Kevin Groh, said Monday.
“With a program of this sort, we naturally require some conditions. However, we have been consistent that accepting a $25 Loblaw card would not restrict customers from receiving incremental compensation through a class action settlement.
“We have also said there would be an offset against civil liability. That means, in effect, we would not have to pay customers the same amount twice. The $25 Loblaw card would represent an advance payment against any settlement that a court may require. It would be deducted — to the extent of $25 — from that settlement.”
The restrictions led to criticism on Twitter from consumers, including a complaint that Loblaw is asking for too much information in exchange for awarding the $25 cards.
“They can get each person a card with a lot less information than this,” wrote Joseph V.@UrbanArtPhoto, who describes himself as a poverty activist. “Companies pay millions of dollars to get this much information on people … Is your personal information only worth that?”
Lesli Boldt, president, Boldt Communications, said the move by Loblaws now looks less about saying sorry and more about protecting the company.
“Having said that, it seems like a wise thing to do, from a legal standpoint, protect the company,” Boldt said. “I don’t think most customers will think about it that much. I think a lot of people will just want the $25, particularly since they don’t have to provide proof of purchase.”
Loblaw also said it reserves the right to limit the number of cards it distributes, although Groh said more than one adult from the same household may apply.
Customers won’t be able to use the $25 card to purchase certain products, including alcohol or tobacco, because federal and provincial regulations do not allow the purchase of alcohol or tobacco with cards of this sort, Groh said.
Loblaw is the only grocer to admit to bread price-fixing.
Representatives from Sobeys and Metro have denied allegations by Loblaw chairman and chief executive officer Galen G. Weston that the problem was industry-wide.
Read more:
What you need to know about the $25 Loblaw card
Loblaw hit with backlash over response to bread price-fixing scheme
Opinion | Vinay Menon: Price-fixing scandal must extend beyond the bread aisle — just follow the dough
