OTTAWA — Having received nothing but silence from Calgary-based telecom service provider VOIS Inc. with regard to its non-compliance with the mandatory requirement to participate in the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), the CRTC is imposing an additional $25,000 penalty on VOIS and a $5,000 fine on its company director Harpreet Randhawa.
This is on top of a $15,000 penalty the CRTC imposed on VOIS in April 2017 for violating its obligation to be a participant in CCTS. At the time, the CRTC also ordered VOIS to restore its participation in CCTS, after it was expelled by CCTS in August 2016 due to its being in violation of its obligations by refusing to cooperate during an investigation of six customer complaints and failing to compensate those customers as directed by CCTS.
To date, the $15,000 penalty imposed by the CRTC has not been paid by VOIS nor has the company rejoined CCTS. In fact, neither VOIS nor Randhawa responded to the CRTC’s original 2016 notice of consultation that initiated its proceeding against VOIS, the CRTC said.
In its most recent decision, issued Thursday, the CRTC is imposing additional penalties totalling $30,000 on VOIS and Randhawa for contravening the requirement to provide information to the Commission as requested in a telecom notice of consultation, also issued in April 2017. In that notice, the CRTC directed VOIS and Randhawa to show cause why they shouldn’t be subject to additional penalties for not providing the requested information to the Commission.
The CRTC said it has yet to receive any type of response from VOIS or Randhawa, and as such, the Commission is imposing the additional penalties, which are due by September 10. If payment has not been received within 30 days of the date of the CRTC’s decision, the Commission said it intends to take measures to collect the amount owing, which may include court action.
“The Commission is gravely concerned by the pattern of non-compliance exhibited by VOIS and, while this is the first instance in which Mr. Randhawa has been formally found in non-compliance, he has been closely involved in the operation of VOIS since the first violation. If this pattern continues, the Commission intends to take further compliance and enforcement actions in respect of VOIS, and any entities or individuals related to it, that will ensure that the Act and its associated obligations are respected,” the CRTC wrote in its decision.
