In a News Release dated September 13, 2016, the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) announced that Comwave Networks Inc. (Comwave) has agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $300,000 for making deceptive marketing claims about the costs and limitations of their Internet and home phone services.
The Bureau conducted an investigation into Comwave’s advertising claims and concluded that the advertised charges for telecom services were not attainable because of additional non-optional fees. The Bureau also determined that Comwave misrepresented that its Internet and home phone services were ‘unlimited’, while the services were in fact subject to monthly caps.
The Bureau found that Comwave providing additional information regarding the costs and limitations in fine print disclaimers and to customers who called their call centre was not sufficient to prevent the advertisements from being misleading.
In addition to the financial penalty, Comwave has agreed, via a consent agreement, to ensure that all of its advertisements comply with subsection 74.01(1) of the Competition Act within the time frames provided in the consent agreement. In addition, Comwave has committed to establishing a corporate compliance program to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.
Summary By: Jennifer R. Davidson