Rogers could face $10 million fine for misleading statements about competitors

By on Nov 19, 2010 at 4:57 PM
General November 19, 2010

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Canadian wireless carrier Rogers may face a $10 million fine for misleading advertising claims made against its competitors. The Canadian Competition Bureau is looking to levy the penalty for Rogers’ assertion that its pre-paid wireless arm — Chatr  Wireless — has “fewer dropped calls than new wireless carriers” such as Wind Mobile. The Competition Bureau reports that there was “no discernible difference in dropped call rates between Rogers/Chatr and new entrants.” According to the report, the Bureau is asking Ontario’s superior court to order Rogers Wireless to pay the $10 million fine and issue a letter of retraction.

We do wonder what the Canadian Competition Bureau would think about AT&T’s fastest 3G network, Verizon’s most reliable 3G network, T-Mobile’s largest 4G network, and Sprint’s now network claims.

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  • Mkoz44

    Seriously, why did Rogers even release this brand? They already have Fido. They earlier stated that they weren’t threatened by the new entrants and then the pushed out chatr and started to blast the competition. Really??? They should seriously look into going to politics the way they focus on the competition.

  • http://emmeff.myopenid.com/ EmmEff

    Honestly, who can not smirk at Rogers being fined BIG for anything?

  • sirpaul

    Rogers doesn’t even have the ability to find out the number of dropped calls Wind has. Wind – not being a publicly traded company – is not obligated to release that info. Rogers should certainly pay that fine. So wrong what they are doing – anything to crumble the competition.

  • Anonymous

    No biggie. 10 million Canadian dollars is like 10k USD or 1 million Mexican pesos

    • http://id.jonavin.net/ Jon

      Or $20 million USD by the end of the week.

      • Tyrthomas

        LOL! Do you read news?? The canadian dollar has been nearly at par with the US for weeks now!!

      • Phuzzykiller

        Not to mention that the Can. $$ is forecast to surpass the US $$ in the next couple of months….. maybe all the kiddies here need to go back to school a bit before they open their mouths (that or just get their head out of their asses!).
        It is hilarious that Rogers is finally being nailed for lying…. even if it is just for this little piddly thing. It still amazes me that people will actually believe what the commercials are telling them. We’ve got an entire couple of generations that aren’t even willing to think for themselves. Zombiepocalyps anyone?

    • SuspiroDaddy

      What lala land are you living in idiot? Can I hand you 10k USD in exchange for 10 million Canadian? I am sure you are one of those red necks who believe the entire world is United States of America….

  • Anonymous

    Robbers indeed.

  • Anonymous

    This is hilarious. In Canada, Rogers is famous for basically lying through their teeth in every advertisement they put out.

    For instance, they are currently advertising a group of five Android “HD smartphones” (no such thing actually), that have screens so startlingly great that once you use them you literally can’t stand to use any other phone. The fact that the iPhone 4 screen is higher res, brighter, and has a greater pixel density than even the ‘best’ of this motley collection of junky android phones is never mentioned in the ad.

    Rogers lies are epic and like most Canadian cell companies, they take payola from the manufacturers to advertise this or that phone (the iPhone rarely appears in any carrier ads of any kind for this reason).

    The idea that they finally got caught over something as trivial and piddling as this is just too funny for words.

    • sirpaul

      Except Rogers sells the iPhone as well.

      • http://twitter.com/sillyvinny Vince O’bri

        Just like Bell, Telus, Virgin, Fido… lol

    • ummm no

      No. The iPhone rarely appears in carrier ads because Rogers doesn’t need to waste money advertising a phone they can barely keep in stock because it sells itself.

    • Borderpatrol

      If they are advertising Android why would they talk about iOs?

  • http://twitter.com/drummer07 Bobby Bridges

    if only this would happen to verizon!

    • Anonymous

      Who cares about Verizon…. at least they don’t advertise HSPA+ as 4G like T-Mobile’s “America’s largest 4G network” claims. It’s like when Sprint claimed the title of “America’s largest, most dependable 3G network”. Yes, the Nielsen Mobile studies said that Sprint 3G was best at the time. But Sprint also counted 3G data roaming on Alltel in the numbers.

      (Yes, I know that there’s no true 4G network yet, but AT&T and others will tell you that HSPA+ isn’t even close to near-4G or 4G.)

  • Gaius

    I don’t see why they have to be fined or made to retract. Of course they will market their product as best they can. Only stupid consumers would believe everything a company says about itself. It’s up to consumers to read 3rd party reports and reviews to make an informed decision. Maybe instead of Canada having a “competition bureau” to “regulate” the few Wireless providers in Canada, the Canadian government should stop taxing businesses so much so that Rogers will have some more competition in the form of startups as well as have more private 3rd party review groups pop up and inform consumers properly.

    • Gullible Consumer

      So, you advocate letting companies lie and misrepresent their products and services so they can make money and the onus should be on the consumers to make sure the companies aren’t lying? Remind me not to buy anything you’re selling.

      • Gaius

        Yes, it’s their right to lie and they do it all the time anyway. It’s up to the consumer to put them out of business. This would happen in a free market, but we have no such thing.

      • Gullible Consumer

        Free market does not mean free for all. When information does not flow unimpeded, there has to be some kind of mediation to make sure that no one person or group takes advantage of another. This is why things like inside trading are illegal. Another reason why criminals like Bernie Madoff is in prison. Surely you don’t believe he had the right to do what he did and those investors who lost out should have known better.

        We do agree on one thing. There is no such thing as a free market. In most cases, the corporations have the advantage over the consumers and as a consumer, I like the fact that companies are prevented from lying and cheating to get higher than a free-market allowed return at my expense.

  • http://twitter.com/vargastony jose

    delete

  • the mechanic

    … $10 million??? on what grounds? did rogers cause a fatal food poisoning outbreak? did rogers perpetrate a devastating oil spill? $10 million for doing nothing more than boasting about how good its product is in advertising material? holy smokes! since when is that illegal? the crooked federal government of canada really is shot to hell …

    … this malicious prosecution was brought not by unsatisfied rogers customers but by the lawless canadian government which is being used by two of rogers’ competitors to unfairly attack the company with hateful litigation. in actual fact, the CUSTOMERS of rogers are COMPLETELY SATISFIED with the product rogers is selling …

    … and why has the corrupt canadian government agreed to assist two of rogers’ rivals by undertaking a malicious prosecution against the beloved canadian institution? the reason is because the bankrupt stephen harper government is so flat broke it will go to any extreme to find easy cash, including by laying false charges against wealthy companies like this fabricated charge against rogers communications …

    … on the positive side, at least the filthy canadian government is taking rogers to court as opposed to unilaterally declaring the company guilty and then issuing an outrageous fine that can’t be opposed. there is no question in anyone’s mind that when this matter is challenged in court it will be tossed out, just like the stephen harper government should be tossed out …

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