Rogers, Bell, Telus Get Sued By Canadian Competition Bureau
It seems that Rogers, Bell, and Telus have to defend themselves from a lawsuit that perhaps they could have avoided. Here’s the details from the Toronto Star:
The Competition Bureau is suing Canada’s three biggest wireless carriers and an industry association for allegedly misleading consumers about the cost of premium texting services.
The watchdog accuses Bell, Rogers and Telus, along with the industry group that represents them, of enabling third parties to sell trivia questions, ringtones and other services without adequately disclosing the cost.
Those can cost up to $10 per transaction and up to $40 for a monthly subscription over and above standard texting plans, the bureau said in a release Friday.
“Our investigation revealed that consumers were under the false impression that certain texts and apps were free,” said bureau commissioner Melanie Aitken.
“Unfortunately, in far too many cases, consumers only became aware of unexpected and unauthorized charges on their mobile phone bills.”
The bureau is seeking $10 million in penalties from each of the companies, and $1 million from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.
It also wants full refunds for customers, a stop to advertisements that don’t clearly disclose the price of the premium-rate digital content and a “corrective notice” informing the public about any order issued against them.
The three telcos could have avoided this since they know that these services exist and they even get get a share of the cash they generate. Thus if they really wanted to shut this practice down, they could have. I guess the cash was way too good for them. Oh well. Off to court we go and I hope the Competition Bureau wins.
September 15, 2012 at 4:12 am
This is another perfect example of the joke that is Canadian cell phone service, and we the customers (nay, victims) unfortunately are the punch line of that joke. These companies couldn’t care less about us, and have been perfectly content price gouging Canadians for far too long. Every other civilized country in the world is laughing at Canada when comparing their stellar cell phone service, which for them renders home lines completely unnecessary, and I’d be willing to bet their cell phones are even cheaper than home phone packages.
I have personally stopped using a cell phone until at least Wind Mobile has service in my area, as I see them as the only hope for competition in the market, and even going with them would only be after extensive consideration and review. Let’s hope the bureau wins and sends these corporations a clear message that we’re sick of being played like a tune.