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Massive Canadian Class-Action Cellphone Suit Is Approved
BeanBunny writes "A Saskatchewan, Canada court has ruled that a $12 billion class-action suit can proceed. The suit alleges that 'system access fees' that the cellphone companies have charged ($7-9 per month) are unfair and constitute price gouging. 'It is described as the largest class-action in Canadian history, potentially affecting every cellphone user in the country. Currently, there are 7,500 complainants signed onto the suit.'"
This is classic bait and switch tactics... Advertise one price, and then hit the customers with another. Their only real justification is that 'everyone else is doing it' and that not doing so would put them out of business. Its about time something like this came along.
You know, that would've been a lot more topical back when we weren't so close to parity.
Assuming the lawsuit is successful, they'll just roll the $7 fee into the base price for ALL of their plans. So my $20/mo plan will become a $26.95/mo plan. Big whoop.
Wake me up when they stop charging $0.10 per SMS, or $0.05 per KB. I mean why is it they can afford me calling my friends after 6pm which uses roughly 9.6kbit/sec for FREE (well unlimited), but I can't send a 200 byte SMS without incurring a 10 cent charge no matter the time of day.
Cell phones are basically a license to print money. And since Rogers and Bell are basically monopolies they can charge [and do] whatever they want. If you look at Rogers previous earnings reports, the wireless division has been making tons of profit for a long time. So strictly speaking the high fees are NOT required to stay in business, they're just fucking greedy.
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
If you are Canadian, and have a canadian cell phone, Go to http://www.merchantlaw.com/cellular.html to sign up...
Ian Ameline
1.00 CAD = 0.985699 USD Not even 1 and a half cents difference per dollar. And the way things are going, we'll be the ones making fun of the American dollar soon enough.
Finally, it took a while to find a post like this, but this is the actual reason for the suit. I am one of the plaintiffs listed in the certification document and a few years ago i was called to a discovery meeting in toronto. i am happy to see this suit finally moving along. the $6.95 was described as a government lic. fee. it is not. the money all goes into the same pot as the other money they collect. they also have a witness from one of the cell phone co.s who was an employee and was told to mislead customers in the description of the so-called service fee. of course, the whole plan was to show a lower entry price.