Direct Seller Vendor

The Direct Sellers Act
TRADE PRACTICES DIVISION
DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES
5 MEWS PLACE
PO BOX 8700
ST. JOHN'S NL  A1B 4J6
CANADA

Other Locations and Contact Numbers

Contents

  1. What is a Direct Seller
  2. How to become registered as a Direct Seller Vendor
  3. What a Direct Seller should know
  4. What a Consumer should know
  5. Direct Seller Links
  6. Direct Seller Forms, Pamphlets and Information

What is a Direct Seller

A Direct Seller is also referred to as a vendor and means a person who:

  • goes from house to house;
  • contacts occupants of houses by telephone;
  • through advertising or otherwise carried out by or for him or her or by or for the relevant vendor requests occupants of houses to contact the direct seller by telephone or present themselves at a hotel room or other non-business premises;

for the purpose of

  • selling or offering for sale goods or services to them;
  • soliciting orders for the future delivery to them of goods or service.

You are not considered to be direct selling and not required to be licenced if you are:

  • a person selling newspapers;
  • a student who sells goods valued at less than $150 for no more than 3 days in a year;
  • a person selling dairy or bakery products, firewood or coal;
  • a person selling motor vehicles, farm implements, feed grain, feed supplements, fertilizer or weed spray, where he or she resides or has a place of business in the Province;
  • a person selling farm products, fish or meat;
  • a person holding written authority from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to sell goods or services;
  • a person selling goods or services on behalf of an organization or corporation having objects of a benevolent, religious, charitable, philanthropic, educational, agricultural, scientific, artistic, social, political, professional, fraternal, sororal, sporting, athletic or other useful nature and not formed for gain;
  • a person in respect of business for the carrying on of which he or she is required to be licenced under the Securities Act, the Insurance Adjusters, Agents and Brokers Act, the Insurance Companies Act or the Real Estate Trading Act;

How to become registered as a Direct Seller Vendor

Before operating in Newfoundland and Labrador a business entity wishing to become a Direct Seller, where applicable, must comply with the following:

  • complete a Direct Sellers Vendor Application and submit a registration fee of:
    no salespersons/distributors $100.00
    one to ten salespersons/distributors $300.00
    eleven to twenty salespersons/distributors $400.00
    more than twenty salespersons/distributors $500.00
    Cheques are to be made payable to the Newfoundland Exchequer Account;
  • if the business entity is a corporation, be in good standing as a company. If the corporation is outside Newfoundland and Labrador then it must be registered as an extra provincial corporation in this province. Please refer to the Registry of Companies for more information;
  • have an address for service in the Province where a document sent or served under the Act shall be considered to be sufficiently given or served if delivered or sent by registered mail to the person at the address for service stated in the application for registration;
  • provide a Surety Bond in the amount of:
    • where the direct seller is a corporation or partnership, and if sales to any one individual do not ordinarily exceed $500:
      not more than 5 salespersons/distributors $3,000
      more than 5 salespersons/distributors $6,000
    • where the direct seller is a corporation or partnership, and if sales to any one individual ordinarily exceed $500:
      not more than 5 salespersons/distributors $8,000
      more than 5 salespersons/distributors $12,000
    • where the direct seller is an individual and where there are:
      no salespersons/distributors $1,000
      one to five salespersons/distributors $2,000
      more than five salespersons/distributors $5,000
  • submit along with the application the direct sales contract to be used by the vendor that clearly shows the Buyers Right to Cancel in compliance with Section 26.1 of the Act;
  • a corporation of partnership applying for a licence shall designate one individual to act as its representative. That person’s name will also appear on the licence.

Salespersons or distributors of the Direct Seller Vendor are not required to hold licences or to be registered in this Province.

What a Direct Seller should know

The licence remains in effect subject to the filing of an annual report and the payment of an Annual Fee or until cancelled by the licencee or suspended or cancelled under Section 17. of the Act. The filing is due every 12 months from the effective date of the original licence. The annual filing form will be sent to your mailing address 60 days prior to the filing due date.

A direct seller is restricted to the sale of goods and/or services that were identified on the application. To sell other products or service the Direct Seller must notify the registrar in writing of the change and if approved the new products or services will be added to the licence.

A direct sales contract shall contain:

  • the consumer’s name and address;
  • the direct seller’s name, business address, telephone number and where applicable fax number;
  • where applicable, the salesperson’s name;
  • the date and place of the contract;
  • a description of the good and services, sufficient to identify them;
  • a statement of Cancellation Rights;
  • itemized prices of the goods or services or both;
  • the total amount of the contract;
  • the terms of payment;
  • in the case of a contract for the future delivery of goods, future provisions of services or goods together with services, the delivery date for the goods or start date for the services or both;
  • in case of a contract for the future provision of services or goods together with services, the completion date for supplying the services or the goods together with services;
  • where credit is extended the details in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act;
  • where goods are taken in trade, a description of and the value of the trade-in;
  • the signatures of both parties.

What a Consumer should know

A direct sales contract may be cancelled within 10 days after a copy of the contract is received. To cancel a contract the consumer must send or deliver a cancellation notice to the direct seller using a method where the consumer can provide evidence he or she cancelled the contract and the date on which this occurred. For more information on canceling a contract refer to Section 22. of the Act.

Ensure that the direct seller’s contract that you sign contains the information that is required as per Section 26.(1) of the Act and is outlined in the What a Direct Seller should know section above.

A licenced direct seller shall produce his or her licence for inspection when requested to do so by a consumer.

If you are dealing with a direct seller vendor regarding a purchase and you feel that the vendor is violating the Direct Sellers Act we suggest you file a complaint with us. The complaint has to be registered by the person that was dealing with the vendor. We cannot mediate third party complaints or legal cases where the complaint is in the process of court action. To register a complaint on-line, please complete our On-Line Complaints Form or to mail or fax your complaint, please download the Complaint Record Form.

Direct Seller Links

Organization Address
Phone Busters www.phonebusters.com
Direct Sellers Association of Canada www.dsa.ca
Canadian Marketing Association www.the-cma.org
World Federation of Direct Selling Associations www.wfdsa.org

Direct Seller Forms, Pamphlets and Information

If you still haven’t found the information you are looking for, please Contact our office.