MONTREAL – A Superior Court judge has ordered Videotron to pay $7 million for improperly charging its television customers for the now defunct Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF).
According to a report in the Montreal Gazette, Judge Carole Hallée gave cause to a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Videotron’s 1.5 million customers. The suit alleged that Videotron customers who subscribed only to its cable services paid the correct amount for the CRTC-levied fund, but those who bought a bundle of services were deliberately overcharged, violating provincial consumer-protection laws.
She awarded $3.2 million to the class-action plaintiffs to compensate for the fee on video-on-demand services and an additional $3.1 million for the overcharges on cable service. The charges occurred between 2009, when the fund was implemented, and 2014 when it was dropped, continues the report. Judge Hallée also assessed $1 million in punitive damages.
How the award will be passed on to consumers remains to be determined.
