Bell fined $10M for ‘misleading advertising’

[SLM]

Federal competition authorities have hit Bell Canada Inc., the country’s largest telecommunications company, with a $10-million penalty for “misleading advertising” spanning the last three and a half years.
“The [Competition] Bureau determined that, since December 2007, Bell has charged higher prices than advertised for many of its services, including home phone, Internet, satellite TV and wireless,” the organization said Tuesday. “The advertised prices were not in fact available, as additional mandatory fees … were hidden from consumers in fine-print disclaimers.”

Bell fined $10M for ‘misleading advertising’ | FP Tech Desk | Financial Post

This caught my eye as I was reading my online news today. Personally, I haven't used Bell in years and I do fully believe that, bottom line, no matter who you are with in this country, you're probably getting ripped off. But, even for a company as large as Bell, a $10M fine is pretty serious money.

It does make me wonder though, since they've stated in the article that they are not appealing and will just pay the penalty, just how much did they make overcharging all their customers?

 

[cranky]

Federal competition authorities have hit Bell Canada Inc., the country’s largest telecommunications company, with a $10-million penalty for “misleading advertising” spanning the last three and a half years.
“The [Competition] Bureau determined that, since December 2007, Bell has charged higher prices than advertised for many of its services, including home phone, Internet, satellite TV and wireless,” the organization said Tuesday. “The advertised prices were not in fact available, as additional mandatory fees … were hidden from consumers in fine-print disclaimers.”

Bell fined $10M for ‘misleading advertising’ | FP Tech Desk | Financial Post

This caught my eye as I was reading my online news today. Personally, I haven't used Bell in years and I do fully believe that, bottom line, no matter who you are with in this country, you're probably getting ripped off. But, even for a company as large as Bell, a $10M fine is pretty serious money.

It does make me wonder though, since they've stated in the article that they are not appealing and will just pay the penalty, just how much did they make overcharging all their customers?

so i wonder if a consumer could use this ruling to take bell to small claims court and sue for the overcharges.

 

[lone wolf]

Ha! Ol' Maw will probably add the fines to operating costs and bill them to customers....

 

[SLM]

so i wonder if a consumer could use this ruling to take bell to small claims court and sue for the overcharges.

I don't know. Does bring up the sticky question of who actually gets the $10M?

Ha! Ol' Maw will probably add the fines to operating costs and bill them to customers....

Undoubtedly.

And the circle begins again.

 

[mentalfloss]

10 Million is nothing to them.

 

[SLM]

10 Million is nothing to them.

I wouldn't say it's nothing. They won't go bankrupt or anything like that.

This is a significant amount of money.

 

[taxslave]

The cost of doing business.

 

[kcowan]

It would have been better if they had been ordered to return the overcharges from their misleading advertising. This just represents anoother tax because the government keeps it.