Misleading Advertising: The Credulous, Inexperienced Consumer

A recent proceeding in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice considered whether Rogers Communication Inc. (Rogers) and Chatr Wireless Inc. (Chatr) had engaged in reviewable conduct contrary to the Competition Act.

The Facts

In 2007, the Government of Canada decided that Canadian consumers and businesses were paying more for wireless services than consumers in other countries.  In order to increase competition, Industry Canada conducted an auction of bands of the wireless service radio frequency spectrum.  At the time of the auction, the wireless sector was dominated by Rogers, Bell Canada, and Telus who had 94% of the subscribers and 95% of the revenues.  As a result of the auction, in 2008 a number of new wireless carriers were created including Wind Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile.