Adult video store owner decries ‘cash grab’
Fantasy Factory chain contends matter is outside B.C.’s jurisdiction
One of B.C.’s few remaining video store owners had thousands of DVDs confiscated in raids last week because they had not been vetted by Consumer Protection B.C.
Tony Perry, who runs Fantasy Factory, an adult video store chain, said he stopped sending his DVDs to the censors last year because he can no longer afford the $300 charged to review each title.
As it has with all video store owners, the Internet has stolen many of Perry’s customers and he’s slashed his prices to stay alive.
The consumer protection agency is a non-profit organization governed by B.C. law and has responsibilities involving several industries including motion pictures, travel and funeral services.
Perry said he’s long believed the consumer protection agency does not have jurisdiction over his business and called the censor fees a “cash grab.”
“It’s our position obscenity is a Criminal Code offence. It’s federal, but here we have this provincial agency involved. It’s a money grab for them,” Perry said.
He said the agency charges $300 to review a single DVD title before any of his stores can stock it. Anything objectionable is ordered removed and then Perry must pay another $300 for a second review.
He said when his videos sold for $50 to $60, he could afford the fee. But now, his videos sell for between $8 and $15, making the fees prohibitively expensive.
Perry, 84, who has been in the business for 58 years, said the system is unfairly set against small video stores like his since major motion picture companies — Hollywood titans such as Paramount — pay less than adult movie distributors.
Consumer Protection B.C. said it charges $3.70 a minute to review adult videos, a fee unchanged since at least 2007. It works out to $444 for a 120-minute video. The charge for reviewing theatrical films was raised in recent years from $1.20 to $2.08 a minute.
“Of all the (video) distributors in Vancouver, we’re one of the last left distributing adult products. All the others are closed because they couldn’t make money,” Perry said.
Fantasy Factory has two stores in Vancouver, and one each in Surrey, Burnaby, Delta, New Westminster and Maple Ridge. He said six of his stores and the warehouse were inspected and videos were seized last week.
Consumer Protection B.C. refused to comment on a specific investigation, but said the costs for regulating the motion picture industry including both theatrical motion pictures and adult videos totalled $1.645 million in 2014. The agency said its fees are set to recover costs, but wouldn’t say how much money it brings in through charges to adult video distributors.
In an email, Shahid Noorani, the agency’s vice-president of regulatory services, wrote that the number of adult videos reviewed by the agency dropped from 190 in 2013 to 70 in 2015. The number of adult video decals issued — every video for sale would have one affixed to it — dropped from 65,091 in 2013 to 19,824 last year. And the number of adult video retail licensees in B.C. dropped from 103 in 2013 to 72 in 2015, he said.
Noorani said the decal system protects consumers and distributors.
“It helps prevent illegally duplicated adult videos from being sold or rented,” he wrote. “If adult videos do not contain depictions prohibited by the Motion Picture Act, the videos are approved for distribution. … The law thus helps ensure all retailers and distributors operate on an even playing field.”
It’s our position obscenity is a Criminal Code offence. It’s federal, but here we have this provincial agency involved.