Bureau Challenges Major Telcos Re Premium Text/ Rich Content Fee Disclosures: Seeks $31 Million Plus Refunds

Bottom Line: On September 14, 2012, the Commissioner of Competition ("Commissioner") filed yet another major misleading advertising action against major telcos in Canada, as well as the industry wireless teko association. If there were any doubt as to whether the new maximum civil penalty instituted under the Competition Act (increased in 2009 from $100,000 to $10 million) was going to be academic, those doubts would now be firmly laid to rest. This is at least the fourth matter where $10 million, or close to $10 million, has been pursued or obtained by the Competition Bureau ("Bureau") since 2009. This action is also interesting in that the Bureau is not only resting its challenge on representations made directly by the telcos, but also on their allegedly permitting and facilitating representations by content providers and aggregators (collectively, "Content Providers") in the latters' ads.