Competition Bureau takes legal action against Rogers Communications
By Adnews Staff
The Competition Bureau has begun legal proceedings against Rogers Communications to stop what the bureau has concluded is misleading advertising of the Rogers Chatr cell phone service. The proceedings follow a two-month investigation into the company's advertising for the service, which claims that customers will experience "fewer dropped calls than new wireless carriers" and have "no worries about dropped calls." The investigation found that there is "no discernible difference" in dropped calls between the Rogers service and its competitors. The legal proceedings are being brought before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice under the misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act. The bureau will ask the court to order Rogers to immediately stop its advertising campaign, pay a penalty of $10 million, make restitution to affected customers and issue a public notice explaining the order against it. "We take misleading advertising very seriously," said Melanie Aitken, Commissioner of Competition. "Consumers deserve accurate information when making purchasing decisions and need to have confidence they are not being misled by false advertising campaigns. New entrants attempting to gain a foothold in the market should not be discredited by misleading claims made by their competitors."