By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Competition Bureau is investigating whether Videotron employees artificially inflated online reviews of the Helix IPTV platform – and potentially other company products – in public forums, according to new court files asking the court to compel the Montreal-based company to hand over documents to advance the inquiry.
The watchdog said it’s of the preliminary view that the company’s employees may have violated competition law by “promoting, directly or indirectly, the supply or use of its products” and business interests through “deceptive” means. As the investigation is ongoing, the Bureau said it has not concluded any wrongdoing so far.
The bureau launched a formal inquiry into the practice, called “astroturfing,” on May 8 and has focused the inquiry on an allegation that a number of Videotron employees were leaving positive reviews, comments, stars and likes of the Helix IPTV platform without mentioning their employment, therefore misrepresenting the product in the Google Play and Apple stores, and possibly other social media platforms, say court documents filed Thursday.
The Bureau forwarded its concerns in a letter to Videotron president Jean-Francois Pruneau on September 20, 2019.
“Videotron was also informed that these allegations were under investigation by the Bureau to determine whether they raised concerns under the provisions relating to false or misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices,” the court documents state.
The filings show Videotron replied to the letter on September 24 and stated it had opened an internal investigation into the matter. In the fallout, the company said it had changed the way it represented the Helix product in the mobile stores, and that the company told 3,500 employees not to comment publicly about the Helix applications.
Videotron identified eight employees following a call with the Bureau’s investigators. Following further examination, the Bureau identified an “undisclosed link” between four additional people who made comments on the app stores and were not previously identified by Videotron, the documents state. The Bureau sent a letter in November stating it found there were two Videotron employees who published ratings and reviews that were not revealed by Videotron to investigators.
File photo by Steve Faguy.
The Bureau notes in the letter it was concerned about the thoroughness of Videotron’s internal investigation and failure to retrieve reliable information.
The company launched the Helix platform in late August last year (right, with Videotron CEO JF Pruneau). Before its launch, however, the company ran a trial of the device for employees, as most companies do prior to debuting a new product.
In November, the Bureau also told Videotron it believes the “disinformation” was not limited to the Helix platform and has asked the company to preserve all documents related to reviews of all of Videotron’s products, including its Wi-Fi applications, Club Illico, Espace Client Plus, Commaffaires, and its low-cost Fizz mobile product. It will investigate all comments across all social media pages, according to the court filings.
It said it found two reviews by two alleged employees on the page of the Fizz mobile application in the Google Play store. Fizz was launched in March 2019 by Videotron as a lower-cost flanker brand.
The Bureau said it has found 47 reviews left by 42 alleged employees on the public pages of five Videotron applications in the Google Play store since 2012.
The watchdog said it has reason to believe “employees of Vidéotron have adopted deceptive marketing practices by giving the public directions online in the form of positive comments and attribution of rank, stars or mentions in connection with applications, and generally with regard to Videotron telecommunications products and services, without disclosing their link of employment with Videotron,” the documents said.
Such reviews create a “general false or misleading impression… by letting consumers believe that the opinions come from real independent and impartial consumers, when in reality the opinions were written by the company offering the product, on its behalf or by its employees.”
The Bureau notes misleading information to the public is a serious issues that affects the digital economy.
“The Competition Bureau has been monitoring the practice of astroturfing in Canada for several years and had previously investigated Bell Canada,” Bureau spokeswoman Martine Noël said in an email to Cartt.ca.
In October 2015, as part of an agreement with the Competition Bureau, Bell agreed to a penalty of $1.25 million for its own case of astroturfing.
Noël added that, on first instance, corporations can be liable to penalties of up to $10 million; on second occurrence, that figure is bumped up to $15 million.
Asked how it came across the practice, the Bureau told Cartt.ca in an email that it “may become aware of anti-competitive or misleading conduct through a variety of ways, including, among others, complaints, information shared by partners, and marketplace monitoring,” but couldn’t say whether it received complaints about this because of its confidentiality guidelines.
Last year, it was revealed through the courts the Competition Bureau had been investigating Bell’s sales practices following news reports about misleading or false claims. The Bureau won its case to compel the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) to divulge complaints information against Bell to further that investigation.
The CRTC, at the behest of the federal government, embarked on a study of misleading sales practices following a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation and held a hearing on the matter in late 2018. The regulator released a scathing report in early 2019 outlining how the industry had to drastically improve on its customer sales and other interactions.
During the sales practices hearing, Videotron said the CRTC shouldn’t impose new regulations on it because it complies with the rules. Instead, it said any new reforms should be imposed specifically on those who allegedly make up the bulk of complaints, pointing the finger at Bell.
“Videotron takes all possible measures to prevent its employees from engaging in deceptive or aggressive sales practices with its customers,” Peggy Tabet, vice-president of regulatory affairs for Quebecor Media broadcasting, said at the hearing. “The resources devoted to the training of our sales advisers aim to ensure that our employees behave according to the values and expectations of the company. In the event of a breach by one of our employees, disciplinary measures are taken to correct behavior deemed inappropriate.”
That same year, Videotron sued Bell for nearly $80 million for alleged misleading door-to-door sales practices.
UPDATE: The Bureau confirmed no provincial governments are involved in this case. As for Videotron, the company issued a statement to Cartt.ca saying, “Videotron believes it has done nothing wrong and is cooperating fully with the federal agency. In view of the ongoing legal process, Videotron will not comment further at this time.”
