Canada's Competition Tribunal imposes $39 million penalty on Cineplex

(Reuters) -Cineplex has been ordered to pay nearly $39 million after the Competition Tribunal found that the cinema operator engaged in deceptive marketing, Canada's competition regulator said on Monday.

The Competition Tribunal found that Cineplex engaged in drip pricing by adding a mandatory $1.50 online booking fee, the Competition Bureau said in a statement.

The penalty is equal to what Cineplex received from consumers when the online booking fee was introduced in June 2022 until December 2023, it added.

Cineplex said it will appeal the competition tribunal's decision.

"This ruling has no impact on the continuation of offering this value-added service to consumers," the Canadian cinema chain said in a separate statement.

The antitrust regulator sued Cineplex in 2023 for drip pricing, where the tickets are advertised at a lower price than what many consumers had to pay at checkout.

The regulator had alleged that Cineplex was breaking the law by adding an additional fee that raises the price of its tickets purchased online.

"The Tribunal's decision sends a strong message that businesses should not engage in drip pricing and need to display their full prices upfront", the Competition Bureau said in the statement.

(Reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)