The Competition Bureau received a complaint in May 2007 alleging that a prepackaged 4-port USB powered hub and power adapter unit sold by a computer electronics chain of stores in Ontario did not comply with the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act (CPL Act) because of misleading information about the power adapter.

A USB (Universal Serial Bus) hub is a device that allows many USB devices or peripherals such as cameras, games, joysticks, printers and scanners to be connected to a single USB port on the host computer.

An examination conducted by the Bureau revealed that the actual capacity of the power adapter was less than what was shown on the packaging and the capacity of the unit was insufficient to meet the needs of the 4-port USB hub. Additionally, the package lacked a dealer’s name and postal address, a bilingual product identity and net quantity information, which are all required under the CPL Act and the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Regulations (Regulations).

The Bureau contacted officials with both the retail store and the importer. The hub packages were recalled from all retail stores and returned to the importer, who then replaced the adapters with new ones from the manufacturer. Additionally, the importer agreed to ensure that packages were labelled in accordance with the CPL Act and Regulations. Two other products not identified in the complaint were found to have similar problems and were corrected in the same manner.

This matter was resolved in July 2007.

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