Canadian Group Files Suit to Halt BC Deposit Law

The Consumers' Association of Canada has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of residents of British Columbia against the beverage industry, retailers and Encorp Pacific. The focus of the lawsuit is the illegal use of consumer deposits collected under BC's Beverage Container Stewardship Program Regulation.

"The BC beverage container regulation is very clear," said Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers' Association of Canada, "deposits collected from consumers can only be used for one purpose - paying refunds to consumers when containers are returned. Since 1998 the industry has collected and used over $70 million in consumer deposits for purposes that are not authorized under the regulation."

When the Beverage Container legislation was introduced the Government made clear that this legislation was based on an industry stewardship model reflecting the polluter pay principle. "At the time beverage containers were filling up landfills and costing municipalities millions of dollars each year to manage," said Cran.

"The purpose of the legislation was to have industry assume responsibility for its polluting product by putting into place a recycling system and paying the costs of this system," said Cran. "The consumers' role was to pay the deposit, incur the costs of returning the container and then obtain a refund when the container was returned. To date, consumers have carried out their responsibility to a high level and recycling is a major success in the province."

Not only did the beverage industry use consumer deposits for purposes not authorized by the regulation they also imposed an additional unauthorized recycling fee on top of the deposit. Since 1999 the beverage industry has collected about $60 million from its Container Recycling Fee without having any legislative authority for this levy. "Simply stated, it's an illegal fee," said Cran.

"The industry shifted all its polluter pay costs onto the backs of consumers and did so without any legislative authority," said Cran. "It's time the industry started paying its fair share of the costs for managing its product."