This bill amends the Consumer Protection Act to protect consumers against representations that use a person’s identity or image without that person’s consent. The prohibition applies to anyone who uses the identity or image, or allows it to be used, to make a representation to a consumer.

New section 238.1 provides that a person’s image includes any image representing that person, whether altered or not, as well as any image that appears to represent that person. A visual or sound recording of the person is also treated as such an image. The bill makes related amendments to the Consumer Protection Act, including amendments concerning the application of the new prohibition to specified practices of commerce and contracts.

The president of the Office de la protection du consommateur may order any person to stop engaging in a prohibited practice under Title II of the Consumer Protection Act, or to stop allowing such a practice to occur, including through document-storage services on a communications network. The president may also order any person subject to, or potentially subject to, an inspection or investigation to preserve evidence of a contravention or offence under Title II, and may impose the same preservation requirement on another person holding such evidence. Orders may be amended or revoked. The bill establishes requirements concerning prior notice, an opportunity to make observations, reasons and notification; in urgent circumstances, or to prevent irreparable harm to a consumer, an order may be made first and observations obtained afterward. Filing an enforceable order with the Superior Court registry gives it the same force and effect as a judgment of that Court.

The chief executive officer of the Autorité des marchés financiers exercises these powers where the representation concerns an activity governed by the Act respecting the regulation of the financial sector or by an Act referred to in section 7 of that Act. Contraventions may result in criminal sanctions or administrative monetary penalties. The Regulation respecting administrative monetary penalties under the Consumer Protection Act (chapter P-40.1, r. 5) is amended accordingly. The provisions come into force on the date of assent, June 12, 2026.