Class Action Lawsuit Against Canadian Cell Companies To Proceed
Today, The Supreme Court Of Canada decided not to hear a class action lawsuit launched against Bell, Telus, and Rogers where the central issue is the charging of so called “System Access Fees” which were billed as government or regulatory charges by the cell companies in question:
Class-action lawyer Tony Merchant alleges that wireless carriers created the appearance that the fees were collected on behalf of a regulatory body when they instead went back to the carriers. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Mr. Merchant calls it the largest class-action the country has seen. If the case as won, every Canadian mobile user may have a stake.
The total value of the suit is $19 billion. Not a small amount. Now, there might be one issue. Mr. Merchant the lawyer behind this was suspended for three months by the Law Society of Saskatchewan for conduct “unbecoming” of a lawyer. Will it slow this lawsuit down? I hope not as Canadians deserve not be screwed over by their telecom companies.
August 3, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Pretty sure he’s only suspended due to the other high-profile, class-action and very controversial cases he and his firm have been handling. I.e. huge privacy related ones including Facebook’s lack of it and the mishandling and lack of protocol with the lost Ontario Elections USB (you had also written an article on).
Here’s the firm’s website for anyone interested: http://www.merchantlaw.com/classactions/
Also, these fees have not been dealt with in the past by any regulatory groups as their pockets are lined with bribes from the telecoms themselves. Ever wonder why we have so little competition and high fixed service rates for telecoms in Canada?
August 5, 2012 at 7:44 pm
how do i get involved with this lawsuit, I too am having problems with telus and thier lies.