Law / Canada / Nova Scotia
Consumer Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies and users of consumer reports
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived . Publisher's page: https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/consumer%20reporting.pdfIn force.
A sensitive categories rule binding private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Registrar of Consumer Reporting Agencies
- Obligation class
- Consent, Data subject rights, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- As a consumer reporting agency (a person who for gain or profit furnishes consumer reports), hold a valid permit under the Act (s. 4).
- Furnish information from your files only in a consumer report given in response to a court order, on the consumer's written instructions, or to a person you have reason to believe intends to use it in connection with credit or the collection of a debt, a tenancy, employment, the underwriting of insurance, eligibility under a statute, or another direct business need in a transaction with the consumer (s. 9(1)).
- Adopt all procedures reasonable for the greatest possible accuracy and fairness in your consumer reports, and do not report information that is not extracted from files stored or collected in a repository located in Canada (ss. 10(1), 10(2)(b)).
- Do not include in a consumer report the kinds of old or unverified information section 10(3) lists, such as a debt more than six years after the last payment, or information you have not made reasonable efforts to verify.
- As a person who procures a consumer report, obtain the consumer's express written consent, or notify the consumer in writing that a report has been or will be requested and give the agency's name and address within ten days after requesting it (s. 11(1)).
- If you deny a benefit to a consumer, or increase its cost, on the strength of a consumer report, tell the consumer in writing immediately of the denial, of the right to have the agency's file disclosed, and of the agency's name and address (s. 11(3)).
- On a consumer's written request, disclose without charge the nature and substance of the information in your file, its sources, and the recipients of any report in the preceding twelve months, and deal with a statement of protest as section 13 requires (ss. 12, 13).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Section 23(1) makes contravening the Act or the regulations an offence punishable on summary conviction, and the individual penalty includes imprisonment for not more than one year.
Penalty structure
Section 23(1) sets a fine of not more than $2,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, and section 23(2) sets the maximum penalty for a corporation at $25,000.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- CAD
- Fixed cap
- 25,000
What this law does
No person may conduct or act as a consumer reporting agency unless the person holds a valid permit under the Act. A consumer reporting agency may furnish information from its files only in a consumer report given in response to a court order, on the consumer's written instructions or to a person it has reason to believe intends to use the information for a listed purpose such as credit, a tenancy, employment or insurance underwriting.
A consumer reporting agency must not report information that is not extracted from information appearing in files stored or collected in a repository located in Canada. No person may procure a consumer report about a consumer without the consumer's express written consent, or unless the person notifies the consumer in writing that a report has been or will be requested and gives the name and address of the agency within ten days after requesting it.
A consumer reporting agency must, at the written request of a consumer, disclose to the consumer without charge the nature and substance of all information in its files, its sources and the recipients of reports in the preceding twelve months.
A person who contravenes the Act or the regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than two thousand dollars or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, and a corporation convicted of an offence is liable to a maximum penalty of twenty-five thousand dollars.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app makes high-risk automated decisions or provides financial services.