Bill 697: An Act to combat waste

This bill primarily affects food processors, distributors, and retailers (think grocery stores, food manufacturers, wholesalers) as well as manufacturers and retailers of non-food consumer goods operating in Quebec — from small local shops to large national chains. These businesses will need to actively seek out and formalize donation agreements with recognized organizations for their unsold or surplus inventory, track annual quantities of unsold products, and report that data to a public government register. Companies that intentionally destroy or render unsaleable goods that could otherwise be donated face steep fines. Merchants and manufacturers who sell goods with warranties can no longer void those warranties simply because a customer had the product repaired by an independent repair shop — a change that will affect how warranty claims are handled day-to-day.