A Toronto Loblaws customer gets a free tomato because of a pricing error. Here's what you need to know about Canada's scanner price accuracy code

A Toronto Loblaws customer says he got free tomatoes because of a pricing error, and now people are responding online to the retailer's smart deal.

On Monday, a Reddit user said Loblaws at Queen and Portland Streets was offering free tomatoes because of a scanning error.

“The most useful thing I learned from this site is that if an item calls for a higher price than advertised, you get it for free. And tonight Loblaws delivered,” the user wrote.

Since the post was shared, more than 60 people have commented that they didn't know the rule or elaborated on it.

Now, Toronto has reached out to Loblaw and confirmed that the grocery chain is following the rules outlined in Canada's Voluntary Code of Scanner Price Accuracy.

The code states that consumers who receive mislabeled goods from participating grocery stores are entitled to receive them for free or at a reduced price under certain conditions.

Charging more than the advertised price for an item violates Canada's Competition Act, which means that when the scanned price of products without a price tag is higher than the advertised price, consumers are entitled to take the item home for free if it costs less than $10.

If the correct price is more than $10, the store must provide a $10 discount.

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According to the Competition Bureau, retailers are not obliged to comply with the code, but “scanner price accuracy is an important element in maintaining consumer confidence”.

The Retail Council of Canada (RCC) oversees the code, which is a collaborative effort between the RCC, the Canadian Neighborhood Pharmacy Association and the Canadian Federation of Independent Food Manufacturers (CFIG), according to the RCC website.

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According to the RCC, the purpose of the code is to demonstrate retailers' commitment to scanner price accuracy, provide a consistent national framework for retailers to address scanner price accuracy issues, and provide a streamlined mechanism for processing scanner price accuracy customer refunds. circumstances.

“The Code applies to all scanned Universal Product Code (UPC), barcoded, and or Price Look Up (PLU) items sold in stores, except for items not readily available to the public (such as prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs). anti-cosmetics) and individually priced items,” says the RCC website.