Court fines Rogers $500,000 over fewer-dropped-calls claim

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered Rogers Communications Inc. to pay a $500,000 penalty for not exercising due diligence before claiming its Chatr brand had fewer dropped calls, the Competition Bureau said in a release Monday. In 2010, the bureau launched a lawsuit against Rogers, seeking a $10-million fine for “misleading advertising” that ran in the summer and fall of 2010, in which Rogers’ discount brand Chatr advertised that it had “fewer dropped calls” than new wireless entrants Wind Mobile, Public Mobile Inc., Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron Ltd. and Mobilicity. In August 2013, the court found the advertising campaign was not misleading. On Friday, the court ruled that Rogers had not “exercised due diligence prior to making performance claims about the dropped call rates for its Chatr brand mobile wireless services,” the bureau said in a release. "While we are pleased that the court recognized that Rogers did not exercise due diligence in making its performance claims, we are examining the modest amount of the penalty imposed and the decision not to issue a prohibition order," Competition Commissioner John Pecman said in the release. Rogers released a statement Monday that said: "We are pleased that the court rejected the Competition Bureau's claims about Chatr advertising. The court rejected the Competition Bureau's efforts to obtain a $7 million penalty and also refused to issue a prohibition order. The court found that virtually every allegation made was false and unfounded.” The company added: "It did find that certain testing should have been completed by Rogers before any of the ads were published and therefore imposed a modest penalty of $500,000. All testing was completed shortly after the ads began and confirmed that Rogers network had fewer dropped calls than our competitors.” Rogers spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said in an email that the Competition Bureau initially sought $10 million when it brought the case to court, and then sought $7 million in an administrative monetary penalty after the court determined the ads were not misleading but that Rogers should have done more testing.

Court fines Rogers $500,000 over fewer-dropped-calls claim

Brief | February 24, 2014

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