Amazon.ca's 'list prices' were never verified — Canada fined it $1.1M

Amazon.ca signalled savings the way marketplaces do: a struck-through 'list price' beside its own price, the gap implying a deal. Between May 2014 and May 2016 those list prices came from suppliers, and Amazon relied on them without verifying they were real — that the product had actually been offered at that price. The Bureau concluded the savings claims were false or misleading, on the website, in mobile apps, in online ads and in customer emails.

The investigation reportedly looked as closely as twelve Blu-ray movies, but the remedy was platform-wide. On 11 January 2017 Amazon signed a consent agreement: a $1 million penalty plus $100,000 toward the Bureau's costs, procedures to validate supplier list prices, and changes to how savings are advertised — reaching beyond Amazon.ca to practices on amazon.com.

Commissioner John Pecman called it 'shared compliance': consumers are drawn to savings claims, so the marketplace that displays the claim owns the verification. The case made the struck-through price a substantiated claim in Canada, not a supplier's suggestion.