2024-02-28 00:30:00
Fido, Rogers, Bell, Telus and Videotron will have to defend themselves, ten years after the fact, for having extracted more than $110 million too much from their customers. A class action against their $50 unlocking fees has just been authorized in Quebec.
• Read also: Here’s how to save 60% at the grocery store
• Read also: Surprise price increase at the SAQ
The five wireless service providers are accused of charging “abusive and disproportionate” fees to those who had a second-hand phone or simply wanted to switch providers. Just in Quebec, we are talking about $30M overpaid.
“It was intentional. It cost them zero dollars to unlock and they made more than 100 million with it,” argues lawyer Joey Zukran, who is leading the case with the Renno Vathilakis firm.
The class action they filed in August 2017 was authorized on Monday by a Superior Court judge. The targeted practice has been banned by the CRTC since December 2017, even though the federal body declared that it should have banned it in 2013.
The then-president called the fees a “farewell tax taken from the customer who wants to leave” when he banned them. He also apologized on behalf of the CRTC for not having done so before.
He realized, during the preceding investigation, that Fido, Rogers, Bell, Telus and Videotron themselves asked the manufacturers – Apple and Samsung – to lock the devices. It was the same price for them.
More than $100M
WSPs earned $21.6M from these fees in 2014, $28.5M in 2015 and $37.7M in 2016, according to the Financial Post, who is cited in the suit. We can easily estimate the figure at $40M for 2017.
“It is not frivolous to think that costs have not followed the same increase [que les frais]», Allows the judge in his judgment on the subject of the databases, the only tool necessary for the FSSF to put the stratagem into action.
The total amount covered by the class action – it covers from August 14, 2014 to December 1, 2017 – is approximately $110M. We can calculate that 25% of the money was taken from Quebecers, which gives $27.5 million.
The next step will be to establish how WSPs will notify their customers who are victims of the practice. They will be back before the judge shortly to discuss it.
Quebecers who paid $50 to use their phone must go to the LPC lawyers website to register for the appeal.
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
1709087170
#class #action #worth #110M #authorized #abusive #fees #unlock #phone