Consumer advocates say CRTC’s net neutrality guidelines a ‘good step’

The CRTC is seeking to "name and shame" Internet service providers that break its rules on traffic shaping. Internet providers will have any complaints against them published quarterly and could be called before commissioners to explain their actions, the CRTC said Thursday in new guidelines for throttling-related complaints. Providers could also face commission-ordered audits of their traffic management practices and be forced to repay customers whose service has been inappropriately slowed or degraded. In what consumer advocates call a “good step forward,” the CRTC announced Thursday it will also make it easier for consumers to report throttling-related complaints by providing specific guidelines detailing when complaints can be made and what information should be included. Under the new guidelines, consumers are still asked to attempt to resolve concerns about traffic shaping with their service provider before filing an official complaint with the CRTC. Those who are not satisfied that their service provider has properly addressed their complaint, the CRTC has spelled out how they can complain to the regulatory commission through its website, under what grounds such complaints would be appropriate, and how the commission will respond. The commission said it will also publish a quarterly summary of the number and types of complaints it receives, indicating which cases are still active and which have been resolved. In an effort to make the complaints process easier for consumers, the CRTC’s website now informs consumers that the commission will review throttling-related complaints under five specific circumstances. These include when a service provider has not properly disclosed its traffic management policies; when throttling practices affect a customer’s ability to use applications; when new traffic restrictions are imposed without 30 days’ notice; or when a service provider has failed to comply with the commission’s traffic management policy or the Telecommunications Act. When lodging a complaint, the site notes that consumers must also provide detailed information about the type of problem they experienced, when and how frequently it occurred, which applications were affected and how, and what effort the consumer has made to resolve the problem with the service provider directly. In an interview with The Wire Report on Thursday, Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) counsel John Lawford said the measures were a “good first step” on the road to making a previously burdensome complaints process a little more consumer-friendly. Lawford said the commission’s website does not yet offer a specific complaints form for traffic management related issues, and that the conditions for making such complaints are not included on the general complaints form page. This, he said, could lead to complaints being rejected for lacking the necessary information. “When you do the complaint, those should be listed for you,” Lawford said. “I wouldn’t want people to send in something and then have it ignored.” If selected by commission staff for a follow-up investigation, a complaint will be forwarded to the appropriate service provider “within 15 calendar days of the date the Commission receives the complaint,” the CRTC said. The service provider will then have 20 days to file a response or it will be automatically considered non-compliant with the commission’s traffic management policy. The original complainant is then given 10 days to respond to the ISP’s submission—an important opportunity that didn’t exist previously under the complaints framework, Lawford said. After reviewing all of the submissions, the CRTC will decide within 15 days whether to pursue the case or to close the complaint. “This provides some greater measure of certainty and clarification on how to complain,” Michael Geist, the Canada research chair of Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, told The Wire Report. “I think some of the clarification they’ve made around timelines and process is also a good thing.” If an ISP is found non-compliant following a investigation, it could face a variety of potential penalties under the CRTC guidelines. On the low end of the scale, the ISPs may be sent requests for more information or for a compliance meeting with CRTC officials. In more serious cases, the CRTC may instruct non-compliant providers to change their traffic management practices, issue a notice of consultation, or “initiate an on-site inspection or independent third-party audit to obtain additional information,” the new guidelines say. The CRTC said it is also reserving the right to call service providers to a show-cause hearing, in which they would defend themselves and explain why the commission should not issue a mandatory order against them “which the Commission could register with the Federal Court.” Though that is unlikely to occur, Lawford said the threat of escalating a complaint to the Federal Court is an “amazing” development. “I’m a glass half-empty guy when it comes to the CRTC so I think it’s an empty threat. But you never know,” Lawford said. Rogers Communications Inc. said Thursday it would comply with an audit if ever asked. “We have no problem with the CRTC ordering an audit if there was ever a need to do so,” Rogers spokeswoman Patricia Trott wrote in an email response to questions. “We will work within the guidelines as set up by the CRTC. There are very few ITMP complaints. Where they do come to our attention we should be able to investigate them and fix them quickly.” Trott said the company encourages “anyone who is having an issue to contact us so we can work with them to help correct the problem.” Geist and Lawford said the new guidelines still place too much burden on consumers, most of whom are not technologically savvy enough to know when their Internet connection is being slowed down. “The practical reality is that the overwhelming majority of consumers simply don’t have the technical expertise to determine instances of throttling and to meet the burden the commission has established in terms of filing the complaint,” Geist said. This message was echoed by Jason Koblovsky, founder of the Canadian Gamers Organization, a new consumer-oriented group that has led the charge on throttling-related complaints in recent week. He called the new guidelines a “slap to the face of consumers” because it is unfair for the CRTC to expect consumers to expend considerable time and energy filing complaints with ISPs. “We see nothing in this policy that makes it any easier on consumers,” Koblovsky said in a telephone interview, noting that many of the new guidelines are the same as previous regulations that have now been made more accessible. “It’s a step forward in what way? This policy has already been put into place.” Rogers Communications Inc., a service provider against which Koblovsky’s group has filed complaints with the CRTC, also noted that most of the commission’s traffic shaping policy remains unchanged. “Today’s announcement appears to be a clarification or formalization of the complaints process we’re already following,” Rogers spokesperson Patricia Trott said in an email to The Wire Report. “ISPs should be held accountable to customers and should investigate complaints and provide a fix where there is a legitimate problem. Publishing complaints will provide a valuable perspective on how many Canadians complain and will demonstrate what ISPs have done to respond. While it may not be necessary for the CRTC to publish the complaints we have no problem with them doing so.” Lawford estimated the new guidelines could lead to a 10-fold increase in overall complaints as consumers find the rules easier to access and understand. “You pretty much had to be an investigative reporter to understand it before,” he said. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Consumer advocates say CRTC’s net neutrality guidelines a ‘good step’

News | September 23, 2011

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