In a recent CBC article, Professor Jasminka Kalajdzic commented on a class action against TD Bank by shareholders.
According to the article, employees' claims of sales pressure sparked the lawsuit that has been filed under the Quebec Securities Act and claims investors purchased TD stock based on "false and misleading statements" from TD Bank. Shareholders say they were not aware of the alleged internal pressure to sell products and services at any cost.
"This class action is not a direct hit on the practice of pressure selling, it's indirect," says Professor Kalajdzic. "Investors are saying they wouldn't have bought the stock if they'd known about the pressure to sell."
Kalajdzic adds the challenge in this class action will be to prove the alleged wrongdoing was widespread.
TD "can't be faulted for whatever individual employees did," she says. "Plaintiffs are going to have to show this was a bank-wide policy of making employees sell products that were not appropriate to customers."