Returns, refunds, displayed prices: what Quebec's Consumer Protection Act imposes on your online store

Search for an online store return policy template and you'll find dozens ready to copy. Almost all of them are French, as in France, and almost all open the same way: "You have 14 days to withdraw from this purchase." That right is real. It just doesn't apply to you. It comes from the French consumer code, and the Quebec merchant who copies it commits to something the law here never asks for. When we build an online store in Quebec as part of our services, it's the first thing we fix.

The problem isn't generosity: a broad return policy is often a good commercial choice. The problem is giving away a right you didn't owe while ignoring what Quebec's Consumer Protection Act (CPA) actually requires.

The short answer, for the busy

In Quebec, no law forces an online store to take an item back because the customer changed their mind: the 14-day withdrawal right is a French rule, not a Quebec one. The Consumer Protection Act requires something else: disclosing a specific list of information before the contract is concluded (s. 54.4), sending a written copy of the contract within 15 days (s. 54.7), performing within 30 days (s. 54.9), refunding within 15 days of a valid cancellation (s. 54.13), and collecting payment before delivery only if the customer pays by credit card (s. 54.3). The advertised price must equal the total payable, with only sales taxes added at the end (s. 224 c). The legal warranty applies automatically and free of charge (ss. 37 and 38). And if you publish a return policy, it becomes part of the contract: you have to honour it as written.

The 14-day withdrawal right does not exist here

In France, a distance buyer gets 14 calendar days to change their mind without giving a reason; Service-Public.fr confirms it. The rule is so common in French-language web content that it reads as universal.

In Quebec, the Office de la protection du consommateur is explicit: a consumer "cannot cancel a contract or a transaction simply because they changed their mind, unless your cancellation, exchange, or refund policy allows it". No comfort return right. You decide.

The flip side has teeth. Still per the Office, your policy "forms an integral part of the contract" and you have "the obligation to respect the rules it sets out". Section 41 of the CPA points the same way: an advertisement or statement binds the merchant who made it. Promising "easy 30-day returns" on the product page and then refusing because the box was opened is riskier than a restrictive policy you actually stand behind.

What the law requires before the "Pay" button

Section 54.4 requires disclosure, before the contract is concluded, of a list the Office summarizes in eleven headings: the merchant's full contact details, a detailed description of each good, the price and related charges, third-party charges that can't be calculated such as customs duties, the total payable, payment terms, currency, performance deadline, delivery, the cancellation and refund conditions, and any other applicable restrictions.

Form matters as much as the list. The information must be presented "prominently and in a comprehensible manner" and brought "expressly to the consumer's attention", which rules out a discreet footer link; the Office suggests routing the buyer through a page that contains it. Section 54.5 adds the express opportunity to accept, refuse, or correct: an order review page isn't a design best practice, it's a legal obligation.

Failing here is a penal offence. Under section 277, a contravention of sections 54.3 to 54.7 carries a fine of $1,500 to $37,500 for an individual, and $3,000 to $75,000 for a corporation.

Prepayment: only one door is open

Here's the most ignored rule of the set. Section 54.3 prohibits collecting any payment, partial or full, before performing your principal obligation, unless it's a payment eligible for chargeback. The Office puts it plainly: "You may collect or offer to collect payment before delivering the good or providing the service in a single case: if the consumer pays by credit card." A few contracts escape the ban (newspaper subscriptions, perishable goods, auctions, lottery tickets), but not a store selling ordinary items.

So taking an Interac e-Transfer before shipping, common among small merchants trying to avoid processing fees, is not compliant for a distance contract. The card costs more precisely because it carries the customer's remedy, which gets forgotten when online payment options are compared on discount rate alone.

Four clocks that start when you miss an obligation

Quebec consumers have no arbitrary return right, but they do have a cancellation right that opens the moment a merchant misses an obligation.

15 days to send the contract. Section 54.7 requires a written copy, storable and printable, within 15 days of conclusion. A confirmation email carrying the section 54.4 information does the job; a bare "Thanks for your order" does not.

7 days, or 30. Missing information, badly presented disclosure, a skipped confirmation step, an unusable contract: the customer can cancel within 7 days of receiving the copy (s. 54.8), or 30 days if no copy ever arrived. The clock can also start at delivery or at the credit card statement, depending on when they notice.

30 days to deliver. Section 54.9 allows cancellation if you don't perform within 30 days of the date stated in the contract, or of its conclusion if no date is given.

15 days to refund, then 60 for the chargeback. After a valid cancellation, section 54.13 gives you 15 days to refund everything, with reasonable return shipping on you. Past that, the customer has 60 days to ask their card issuer for a chargeback (s. 54.14), and the issuer must acknowledge within 30 days and process within 90 (s. 54.16). Not a network-arbitrated card dispute: a right set out in the statute.

The displayed price has to be the price paid

Section 224 c prohibits charging "for goods or services, a higher price than that advertised", and specifies that the advertised price "must include the total amount the consumer must pay", with only GST and QST allowed to sit outside. The statute also requires that "more emphasis must be put on the price advertised than on the amounts of which the price is made up".

Per the Office, the only excludable amounts are those you collect under a statute to remit to a public authority: your administration or documentation fees belong inside the displayed price. Ottawa followed, with section 74.01(1.1) of the Competition Act treating as misleading the advertising of a price unattainable because of fixed obligatory charges.

The amounts aren't symbolic. A contravention of section 224 falls under section 278: a minimum fine of $5,000 for a corporation, and a maximum of the greater of $125,000 or 5% of worldwide gross revenues in the preceding financial year. For the tax mechanics themselves, see our piece on a Quebec store's tax obligations.

The legal warranty applies whether you write it or not

Sections 37 and 38 are short and consequential. Goods must be fit for the purpose for which they are ordinarily used, and must be durable "in normal use for a reasonable length of time, having regard to their price, the terms of the contract and the conditions of their use". No fixed duration: a $900 appliance doesn't have the life expectancy of a $15 accessory.

The Office is clear that this is mandatory: the warranties apply automatically and free of charge, and "any stipulation, verbal or written, that a good is sold without warranty cannot be set up against the consumer". A "sold as is, no returns" line in your terms does not shield you from a defective product.

Worth a calendar note: as of October 5, 2026, section 38.1 will add a good working order warranty, parts and labour included, on a list of new goods (appliances, televisions, computers, tablets, phones, game consoles, air conditioners, heat pumps), and section 38.8 will require displaying its duration near the advertised price.

Writing a return policy that holds up

Three principles. Write the policy you can actually apply: the law imposes no threshold, so pick yours based on your margins and your real return rate. Nothing stops you from being more generous, section 35 says so explicitly; the difference is that you're choosing it.

Show it before payment and repeat it in the confirmation email: section 54.4 k makes it information to disclose before the contract is concluded, and section 54.6 requires including it in the written contract.

Then strip out the clauses the law doesn't allow. Per the Office, you cannot refuse to follow through on a transaction because the item is out of stock, or because there was a pricing error. Both clauses show up in plenty of templates and are worth nothing here.

Where to start

Walk your own checkout like a customer and check five things: the section 54.4 list before payment, the order review step, a displayed price equal to the final amount before taxes, a confirmation email that works as a copy of the contract, and a return policy that is genuinely yours. A few hours of work on a well-built store, a partial rebuild anywhere else.

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This article explains legal obligations to help an SMB ask the right questions. It is not legal advice: the rules described carry exceptions depending on the type of contract and goods, so validate your own situation with the Office de la protection du consommateur or a lawyer. The text of the statute prevails.