Competition Bureau sues Rogers for unlimited data claim

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The agency claimed that on Monday that Rogers’ ads create the false or misleading impression that the plans provide consumers with unlimited data, when in fact data service is severely throttled when a data cap is reached. It says data speeds are reduced or throttled by over 99 percent when a customer hits the cap.

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“Canadians need accurate and truthful information when purchasing goods and services, especially essential services like wireless data plans,” Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell said in a statement.

Rogers says in a statement that the announcement of its Infinite plans is clear and truthful, and it will fight the lawsuit.

It says the plans, introduced in 2019, helped eliminate overage charges at a time when data usage began to grow exponentially. It said such plans are common in the industry, and the agency’s decision to appoint Rogers after five years is quite troubling.

Other telcos in Canada also advertise “unlimited” data plans that reduce speeds, generally to up to 512 kilobits per second, after a threshold is reached. Like Rogers, they usually list the actual speeds for the unlimited data in the footnotes.

The agency says it has filed an application with the Competition Tribunal to order Rogers to stop the misleading advertising, pay a fine and issue compensation to customers with Infinite phone plans.

The lawsuit comes just over a year after the Competition Bureau obtained a court order ordering Rogers to produce records and information relevant to the investigation.

As part of an earlier legal response to the agency, Rogers noted that from a practical perspective, Infinite customers get access to high-speed cellular data in such significant amounts that it is effectively unlimited for their purposes.

The current plans on the Rogers website advertise either 175 gigabytes or 200 GB before speeds are throttled. The CRTC said that as of the second quarter of this year, Canadians were using an average of 9.27 GB of data per month on their mobile devices.

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