The Easter bunny is coming for your wallet; Schools vs. social media giants: CBC's Marketplace cheat sheet

Miss something this week? Don't panic. CBC'sMarketplacerounds up the consumer and health news you need.

Want this in your inbox?Get theMarketplacenewsletter every Friday.

Here's how climate change is making your grocery cart more expensive

If you're gearing up for an Easter egg hunt this weekend, you've undoubtedly noticed the price of chocolate is on the rise.

You can thank the scarcity of cocoa for that. The majority of it grows in West Africa, where drought and disease have severely reduced crop yields. As a result, the cost of cocoa has tripled in the last year, hitting $10,000 US a ton for the first time.

It's proof of how global warming is hitting our pocketbooks, says Pascal Thriault, an agricultural economist at McGill University in Montreal.

The food system "relies on stability, and what climate change does is it creates situations where nothing is stable," he said.

Take olive oil, another victim of drought conditions specifically in the Mediterranean Sea, where hot and dry weather last summer damaged olive groves, reducing the yield and sending the price of this kitchen staple ever upward.

Drought is also partially responsible for the shortage of rice in Italy, which grows about half of Europe's supply. Similar problems have hampered growth in Asia.

In India, rice crops were damaged by especially heavy monsoon rains, leading the country to halt exports of some varieties. Read More

A U.S. lawsuit could upend the cornerstone of the real estate industry: commissions

The cost of selling a home in the United States may be about to change dramatically.

A real estate trade group has agreed to a landmark deal to drop what was once a cornerstone of the industry: the six per cent sales commission paid to agents.

In Canada, two lawsuits filed against various real estate bodies want the courts to come to the same conclusion and force wholesale change in the way Realtors charge their fees when a home is sold.

"We got here by a cartel of brokerages and real estate associations that control the rules, and they've done it for a very long time," said Garth Myers, a litigator with Toronto law firm Kalloghlian Myers.

He filed the proposed class-action lawsuits in Federal Court on behalf of plaintiffs who allege that the Canadian Real Estate Association, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and several local brokerages and franchisors conspired to set fees and illegally drive up the price of real estate commissions.

At the heart of both the U.S. and Canadian cases is the opaque way in which real estate agents charge their fees.

In Canada, there are different fee structures in different jurisdictions. In Ontario, for example, a commission of five per cent of a home's sale price is split between the buyer's and seller's agents.

With the average price of a Toronto home at $1,225,000 last month, Realtor fees would amount to $61,250.

In Vancouver, Realtors charge seven per cent on the first $100,000 of the sale price, and between 2.5 and three per cent on the balance. So agents would split between $29,500 and $34,000 in fees on a $1-million home.

In the U.S., agents generally charge a commission of five or six per cent.

But what is common among those different jurisdictions is that the fee paid to the buyer's agent is baked into the price of the home, while a seller can negotiate with their agent and get a better fee.

A potential buyer can look up the details of a home on something called the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The listing includes everything they would want to know about a property from size and taxes to upgrades and amenities but it doesn't disclose the amount a buyer will pay in Realtor fees.

Myers said the existing system enables agents to steer clients away from homes that aren't paying the full commission.

"It's clear to us that consumers are being ripped off, it's clear to us that the rules elevate the cost of buyer brokerage commissions," he said. "Now the open question that the court is going to have to resolve is whether this is criminal conduct under the Competition Act. And that's what we're fighting about in court."

It will likely take years before the cases are resolved. Read More

Marketplace has caught real estate agents on hidden camera steering buyers away from low commission homes. You can watch that story and more anytime on CBC Gem.

Your kids brains' on social media: Why these school boards are suing social media giants for billions

Four major Ontario school boards are taking some of the largest social media companies to court over their products, alleging the way they're designed has negatively rewired the way children think, behave and learn and disrupted the way schools operate.

The public district school boards of Toronto, Peel and Ottawa-Carleton, along with Toronto's Catholic counterpart, are looking for about $4.5 billion in total damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., which operate the platforms Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok respectively, according to separate but similar statements of claim filed Wednesday.

"These social media companies ... have knowingly created a product that is addictive and marketed to kids," said Rachel Chernos Lin, the chair of the Toronto District School Board, on CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Thursday.

The allegations have yet to be proven in court, and there is no set date for when they will be heard. CBC Toronto has reached out to the companies named for comment.

In an email, a Snapchat spokesperson said the app was "intentionally designed to be different from traditional social media."

"Snapchat opens directly to a camera rather than a feed of content and has no traditional public likes or comments."

The school boards, speaking under a new coalition called Schools for Social Media Change, allege students are experiencing an "attention, learning, and mental health crisis" because of "prolific and compulsive use of social media products," in a news release.

They allege the platforms facilitate and promote cyberbullying, harassment, hate speech and misinformation, and have a part in escalating physical violence and conflicts in schools, according to the statements of claim. They also argue these apps are "purposefully designed" to deliver harmful content to students dealing with topics such as suicidal ideation, drugs, self-harm, alcohol, eating disorders, hate speech and sex particularly content showing "non-consensual" activity.

Trying to respond to those problems has caused "massive strains" on the boards' funds, including in additional mental health programming and staff, IT costs and administrative resources, the release says. The boards call on the social media giants to "remediate" the costs to the larger education system and redesign their products to keep students safe.Read More

What else is going on?

He thought he'd sold his Rolex for $15K. Sleight of hand left him with coupons instead
Magic tricks and Facebook marketplace collide.

Stellantis is recalling 10,000 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans in Canada for airbag defects
They're being recalled to replace the side airbag inflator, which can explode with too much force and hurl metal fragments at drivers and passengers.

Do you need a spring COVID-19 vaccine?
Research is suggesting an extra round of boosters for high-risk groups.

Marketplace needs your help!

What do you think we should investigate next? We want to hear your tips, gripes, and story ideas. Reach us at marketplace@cbc.ca

Are you looking for the latest in business news? You'll want to subscribe to this newsletter, too.

Mind Your Business is your weekly look at what's happening in the worlds of economics, business and finance. Subscribe now.

Catch up on past episodes ofMarketplaceonCBC Gem.