Competition Bureau Investigating TDG for Deceptive Marketing

The Competition Bureau announced late last month it has obtained a court order to advance its inquiry into The Dufresne Group, Inc. (TDG) and its affiliates, which operate the retail banners Dufresne Furniture & Appliances and certain Ashley Furniture HomeStores in Canada.

In a statement, the bureau said it is looking to determine if their marketing practices raise concerns under the civil deceptive marketing provisions of the Competition Act. “There is no conclusion of wrongdoing at this time,” the statement emphasized.

The bureau’s investigation is looking into two different alleged practices: urgency cue claims related to the end dates of sales that may be false or misleading, and potentially inflated regular prices used when making savings claims.

The federal agency said urgency cue claims such as “countdown clocks” and “limited time remaining” could be false or misleading if they create the impression consumers must purchase a product quickly prior to the end of the promotion when in fact the promotion is renewed or replaced by another promotion.

The order was granted by the Federal Court of Canada on November 10 and requires TDG and its affiliates (TDG Furniture, Inc., DFA Operations, Inc. and Furniture Investment Group, Inc.) to produce records and information relevant to the bureau’s investigation.

The privately held, family owned TDG operates 15 stores under the Dufresne Furniture & Appliance banner in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. There are 62 licensed Ashley Furniture HomeStores in Canada, however, it’s not known how many of them are operated by TDG.

TDG also operates the Dufresne Retail Solutions Group (RSG), which has an estimated 100 independent retail members across the country but it isn’t included in the Competition Bureau’s investigation.

In 2019, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) has agreed to pay a $4 million penalty and $500,000 towards the costs incurred by the Competition Bureau during its investigation into the advertising and pricing practices for sleep sets sold by its Hudson’s Bay department store banner and its 89 stores across the country.