Air Canada court battle and the sky high price of RAM: CBC's Marketplace cheat sheet

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As the holidays near, our newsletter will be taking a short hiatus — but we'll still be on the lookout for consumer news, tips and insider info to help you save cash and stay healthy.

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Air Canada has successfully overturned a Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) decision requiring the airline to pay a passenger $2,079 for delayed baggage.

After an 11-month court battle launched by Air Canada, Federal Court Justice Michael Manson ruled that a CTA officer’s 2024 decision was unreasonable. The matter has been sent back to the CTA, Canada’s transport regulator, for a new officer to reassess the compensation claim.

The case originates from a 2022 flight Alaa Tannous and his wife, Nancy, took from their home city of Toronto to Vancouver. Their checked baggage arrived one day after they did.

Air Canada originally offered Tannous $250 compensation. Dissatisfied with the amount, he filed a complaint with the CTA.

According to court documents, Air Canada argued the CTA’s order to award Tannous $2,079 was flawed, because the purchases he made to replace the items in his missing suitcase “were excessive, included luxury items,” and some goods were bought after the suitcase was returned.

In his decision, Manson agreed that the CTA ruling was questionable, because it included a portion of the later purchases.

“The officer’s reasons do not address nor show any common sense on why post-delivery purchases were causally linked to the delay,” he wrote.

Tannous said Air Canada served him with court papers on Christmas Eve in 2024. He said he did not hire a lawyer or participate in the court case, because he felt it was a waste of money and time. He declined to comment on the outcome of the case except to point out that it’s still active.

Why beef prices keep going up

Canada's annual inflation rate was unchanged in November, but grocery inflation reached its highest rate in nearly two years, Statistics Canada said on Monday.

While the overall inflation rate came in at 2.2 per cent, in November, food costs increased by 4.7 per cent compared to this time last year.

That marked the largest increase to grocery price growth since December 2023.

Fresh fruit — especially pricier berries — drove the increase, as did "other food preparations" (a category that mostly includes processed foods).

Coffee prices remain stubbornly high, having increased 27.8 per cent on a yearly basis in November. The trend has been ongoing as coffee-growing countries face adverse weather conditions and U.S. Tariffs.

Meanwhile, fresh and frozen beef — up 17.7 per cent last month — continued to weigh on inflation, with prices driven up partly because cattle inventories are shrinking across North America.

Marketplace will tackle this topic in January with an investigation about how grocery stores themselves are driving the increase in the cost of food.

From computers to cellphones and even certain features in cars, a lot of electronics rely on random-access memory, or RAM. It’s the fundamental hardware your computer processor needs to run applications, open files and let you surf the internet.

But if you've been in the market recently for RAM, you've probably noticed a major spike in prices as memory manufacturers pivot more of their production capacity away from consumer products to supplying AI companies instead, which are rapidly building data centres that need massive amounts of memory to operate.

Back in October, Chen said he could find a 32GB DDR5 memory kit for under $130. By mid-November, the price had more than doubled to around $300.

Now, Chen says, it’s difficult to find that same memory kit for less than $400.

“Everything that uses memory, the prices are going to go up,” Willy Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, said.

That’s essentially every electronic product from cellphones to smart fridges to modern cars.

Lawyer who admitted stealing millions of dollars from homeowners is disbarred

Singa Bui forged bank statements to hide theft from auditors, tribunal hears

Via Rail CEO stepping down as Crown corporation faces increasing scrutiny

Retirement comes amid criticism of rising ticket prices and delays

Air Transat's parent company reports $12.5M loss in latest quarter

Airline owner's revenue increased by 1.5% compared with a year ago

National home sales fell in November with housing activity in 'holding pattern,' says CREA

Some sellers making price concessions to get end-of-year deals done, says economist

Thinking about going off an antidepressant? Here’s what experts want you to know about doing so safely

Many Canadians use antidepressants, but it's not always clear when to stop

Have you complained to the consumer protection office in your province or territory? If so, we want to know how it went. Email us at marketplace@cbc.ca.

Are you planning on cancelling your cell, cable or internet service? Before you do, Marketplace wants to hear from you! Email us at marketplace@cbc.ca.

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