By Ahmad Hathout
The Quebec Superior Court has approved a class of plaintiffs to sue Videotron and Cogeco for price increases it says were made without proper notice.
The court on Friday found that the class may have a legitimate case at trial because the telecoms neglected to include in their notice of price increases certain information required by the province’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA), namely: a previous version of the amended clause and all options available for a customer to cancel their services.
Section 11.2 of the CPA stipulates that the company must provide at least 30 days notice of a price change, which must include “only the new or amended term and the previous version, the date on which the amendment came into force and the consumer’s rights set out in paragraph c.” Paragraph c stipulates that the customer can cancel those services by “sending a notice to that effect to the merchant not later than 30 days after the coming into force of the amendment.”
“The modification of a contract made in contravention of the provisions of this article shall not be enforceable against the consumer,” the law says.
The court found that while both telecoms’ contracts reflected the correct verbiage of the law, the evidence provided suggests they were deficient in their price-increase notices for services provided after September 20, 2021, which is the start date for the class capturing all Quebec customers.
The court says in some notice examples, the telecoms fail to detail in the notices the previous version of the amended clause.
In other examples, the court says Cogeco and Quebecor appear to fail to give notice to customers that they have the option of cancelling services within 30 days while only providing a phone number to call. And in yet another, Cogeco simply sends an email asking the customer to go to their My Account page to see more information about the price changes; Quebecor in the prior example also includes a website link for more information.
“It is not explained why it seems so complicated to send a written notice, clearly and legibly drafted, containing exclusively the new or amended term as well as the previous version, the date of entry into force of the amendment and that the consumer will be able to terminate the contract without cost, penalty or termination indemnity, by sending a notice to that effect to the merchant no later than 30 days after the coming into force of the amendment,” the court said (emphasis made by the court).
“If the merchant’s concern is to be able to convince the subscriber not to terminate his contract by forcing him to call, this seems to go clearly against the will of the legislator,” it continued.
“The evidence on file at this stage indicates that the defendants are not complying with the terms of their subscription agreement,” it added.
If the trial court agrees, the class may be eligible for the requested reimbursement of the price increases and punitive damages of $200 per class member. The class is also asking for a court to stop the telecoms from continuing the alleged illegal practices.
Cogeco said it cannot comment on matters before the court. Videotron did not respond to a request for comment.
