Tim Hortons chain targeted for class action

The Tim Hortons company is facing a request for collective action in Quebec concerning the collection and use of personal information from its customers via its mobile application. The bill could be several million dollars for the coffee chain.

On Tuesday, lawyer Joey Zukran of LPC Avocats and the Consumer Law Group filed a Superior Court petition against Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Tim Hortons and Burger King.

• Read also: Customer data collection: Tim Hortons chain under investigation

In public documents, Restaurant Brands International is accused of having possibly used its mobile application to invasively follow and monitor customers without their knowledge. People’s information would have been collected even if the application was closed.

It was the Financial Post that revealed this story on June 12.

This week, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada announced an investigation. It is carried out jointly with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia and the Access to Information Commission. information from Quebec.

These four organizations will verify whether Tim Hortons has complied with privacy laws and electronic documents.

The collective action represents all Quebecers who have downloaded the application from the channel used for orders. According to demand, Tim Hortons has hundreds of thousands of customers in Quebec and a few million Canadians use this application.

The lawyers are claiming damages in the amount of $ 100 for the plaintiff in the class action. The amount for punitive damages for the entire group remains to be determined. The bill could be several million dollars.

“We don’t ask for an amount per person. […] We want to obtain an amount for the group, ”explains lawyer Joey Zukran. “We allege that the company did this intentionally,” he said.

The latter believes that the company has not complied with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

Recently, Tim Hortons mentioned to several media outlets that it had made changes to its application. Previously, consumer data would have been recorded every three to five minutes. The American company Radar Labs was responsible for analyzing them.

For Joey Zukran, this change is a form of “implied admission” of the company’s illegal practice.

“Now you need to know what Tim Hortons has done with the illegally obtained data,” he said, adding that the class action could also potentially include the people who downloaded the Burger King app.

Tim Hortons management declined to comment on the class action request.

– .