DHL Overcharges Customers With ‘False’ Processing Fees, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

Courier company DHL disguises processing fees as import taxes, overcharging customers in an “unlawful scheme,” a new class action lawsuit alleges.

A nationwide class action filed in B.C. Supreme Court last week by lead Plaintiff Gayle Vallance alleges that DHL has been making “false, misleading and deceptive” claims about fees and profiting off its misrepresentations, reports CBC.

Vallance said that she paid DHL $98 to ship two books on fabric weaving from the United Kingdom, and when they arrived in Canada she was told she had to pay $33.16 in “duties and taxes” before they were delivered. However, after numerous inquiries to the company, Vallance, a retired school teacher, found that $17 went to DHL as a processing fee.

The class action claims that DHL misrepresents its own processing fees as government import and tax fees by sending email to customers with the subject line “IMPORT DUTY/TAX PAYMENT,” that advise customers to pay the so-called tax or risk losing their parcel, reports CBC.

“I don’t think anybody has any difficulty paying for taxes and duty that’s properly owing and payable,” Vancouver lawyer Scott Stanley, who is representing Vallance, told CBC.

“It’s when there’s additional fees that aren’t clear where people get their backs up.”

Stanley said DHL was already being paid to deliver the packages, and the processing fee wasn’t transparent.

“DHL was unjustly enriched by its conduct,” says the claim.

The class action says that DHL’s conduct breaches the federal Competition Act and “constituted an unfair business practice contrary to consumer protection legislation” across Canada, reports CBC. “DHL was unjustly enriched by its conduct.”

DHL spokesperson Daniel McGrath told CBC that the company does not comment “on active legal matters.”

Vallance’s class action lawsuit comes a month after a story was published on CBC about a Calgary woman who experienced the same shock at the courier’s “hidden” processing fee. After the story was published, a number of other DHL customers came forward with the same complaint.

Vallance wants to represent a nationwide Class of DHL customers who have paid DHL processing fees, and who “sustained loss and damage” from paying those fees. The class action is also seeking payment for “stress and anxiety,” reports CBC.

It’s not just courier companies that face legal action over delivery fees.

In the United States a number of food delivery apps have been hit with class action lawsuits over hidden delivery fees. In March, a class action was filed against Chipotle by Plaintiff John Dundon, who claims that the Mexican food chain adds a 10% “service charge” to delivery orders, effectively making its ‘free’ or ‘$1’ delivery advertisements untrue and misleading.

Do you use DHL for deliveries? Have you ever been surprised by the company’s import tax rates?

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