This newsletter is not AI; gag orders at the bank: CBC’s Marketplace cheat

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Would you sign a gag order to get compensation from your bank?

Guanghu Cui was poring over his TD Bank statements in March, preparing to pay taxes for his small immigration consulting firm in Oakville, Ont., when he noticed a $1.50 fee for sending an e-transfer.

It was surprising, because when he’d opened his business account three years ago, his financial advisor told him the plan included five free transactions a month, and he’d never exceeded that number.

Cui complained. Eventually, TD said it would reimburse him for the fees and compensate him for his “frustration and inconvenience.” 

But when the paperwork arrived for Cui to sign, it included a condition saying he must “keep it confidential.” While he could speak about the dispute, he would not be allowed to tell anyone that TD had offered compensation. 

“I was really stunned, to be honest, because I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Cui. “Why do you try to shut me up?”

Confidential contracts — known as non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs — were initially created to protect trade secrets or intellectual property, but have evolved into a common tool to silence people who have been wronged: financially, professionally or, in the case of sexual assault victims, physically and mentally. 

After Go Public got involved, TD apologized to Cui in a phone call that he recorded. 

A spokesperson said Cui’s concerns had been “reviewed further” and that he no longer had to sign the NDA. When Cui questioned why TD was backtracking, the spokesperson said the agreement was “purely for documenting.”

In an email to Go Public, a spokesperson said the bank did not “believe that Mr. Cui should have been required to sign a Settlement and Release document in this matter.”

She would not say why he had been asked to sign the NDA in the first place and said the experience would be used as a “coaching opportunity.” Read More

Customers are fed up with anti-theft measures at stores

Susan Dennison recently had an unsettling experience at her local grocery store, a Loblaw-owned Fortinos in Burlington, Ont.

Just as she was leaving, the wheels on her shopping cart locked, immobilizing it.

She said a store employee rushed over and demanded to see her receipt. 

“I felt like I was ambushed,” said Dennison, who scrambled to find her bill. “She’s badgering me, like, ‘Is it in your wallet? Is it in your pocket?'”

The carts are only meant to lock if a…