B. Recommendation

12.1 Upon completing an investigation, the Commissioner may (…) make a Recommendation to the Customer and the Participating Service Provider regarding what the Commissioner considers to be a reasonable and appropriate resolution of the complaint, without having regard to any monetary limitations of liability contained in the contract between the Customer and the Participating Service Provider. 

12.2 The Commissioner’s Recommendation:

  1. shall be in writing;
  2. shall include the Commissioner’s reasons;
  3. is not binding on the Customer or the Participating Service Provider; and
  4. is subject to the monetary limits set out in Section 14.

Upon completing an investigation, we may conclude that the PSP has failed to demonstrate that it fulfilled its obligations towards the customer. If the PSP is unwilling to provide a reasonable resolution to the matter, we will issue a written Recommendation for the resolution of the complaint. We will send a copy of the Recommendation to both parties and request a response within 20 days.

Recommendation Issued

The CRO will issue the Recommendation with approval from the Commissioner. We will provide the PSP and the customer with written copy of the Recommendation, along with instructions for the next steps.

Once the Recommendation has been issued, the status of the complaint will change to “Recommendation issued”:

How to respond to the Recommendation

You will have 20 calendar days to respond to the Recommendation. The response must be in writing, and must clearly explain whether you accept or reject the Recommendation. If you reject the Recommendation, you must inform us of the reasons why you believe that the Recommendation is not appropriate or acceptable.

You must respond to the recommendation. Any party who does not respond to the Recommendation will be deemed to have accepted the recommendation.

We will notify the other party when we receive a response to the Recommendation.

Recommendation Accepted

A Recommendation is only considered to be accepted if both parties accept it. If any party fails to respond to the recommendation within 20 calendar days, they will be deemed to have accepted it.

We will notify you in writing once the Recommendation has been accepted by both parties. The complaint will be moved to the “Concluded” tab on your dashboard and it will change to “Recommendation accepted”:

Implementing the recommendation

Section 12.4 of the CCTS Procedural Code states that “If the Customer and the Participating Service Provider both accept the Commissioner’s Recommendation, the Participating Service Provider and the Customer shall promptly take such steps as are called for in the Recommendation, and the Customer and the Participating Service Provider shall be deemed to fully release one another from any and all losses, damages, and claims, arising from the matters relating to the complaint.”

When both parties accept the recommendation, it becomes binding and the PSP must implement the resolution.

We expect PSPs to implement the resolution immediately upon receipt of our written confirmation that the recommendation has been accepted by both parties. In the exceptional event that the PSP is unable to implement the recommendation immediately, the PSP must clearly inform the customer and the CCTS of the date on which it expects to be able to implement it.

You must send us written confirmation within 5 business days, indicating that the recommendation has been implemented. Failure to confirm implementation of the recommendation will result in the complaint being referred to the CCTS Compliance Team for further action.

Recommendation Rejected

If one party rejects the Recommendation, the other party is still required to respond to the Recommendation and they may still choose to accept or reject the Recommendation. If one or both parties reject the Recommendation the complaint will proceed to the final stage of the complaint handling process and a Decision will be issued.

We will notify you in writing once both parties have responded to the Recommendation. If a party rejects the Recommendation, the status of the complaint will change to “Awaiting decision” and the reason will explain whether the customer or the PSP (or both) rejected the Recommendation: