"It's a surcharge that nobody agrees to, nobody knows anything about it until the delivery person is at the door."
Those words -- and giant courier service United Parcel Service (UPS) is slapped with a lawsuit regarding brokerage fees charged for items shipped from the US to Canada. The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, claims that UPS charges an undisclosed brokerage fee once the package has been delivered – this on top of the standard shipping and handling fees and government levies.
The case originated from the ire of one Robert Macfarlane, who, after purchasing an amplified telephone device from Arizona over the Internet last year, complained of the $38.40 brokerage fee charged by UPS.
Macfarlane filed the case in the BC Supreme Court, and subsequently been endorsed under the Class Proceedings Act, asserting that, "It is a misleading and deceptive practice by UPS not getting the consumer's consent, not telling the consumer about the fee and not allowing the consumer to arrange their own customs clearance."
Lawyers to the case expect hundreds of thousands of people across Canada
who have been in the same situation to support the case. Already, there are plans to file a similar lawsuit in Ontario.
In addition to punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages, the lawsuit wants everyone who paid the fee reimbursed. It added that the other major other goal of such a lawsuit is what the court calls "behaviour modification" which should start by issuing permanent injunction stopping UPS from continuing to charge the fee.