OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The CRTC announced it is imposing a $194,330 penalty on Ontario Consumers Home Services (also known as Simply Comfort) and a $69,000 penalty on Blue Dream for violating the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.
Between December 2016 and February 2017, Ontario Consumers Home Services committed more than a million violations of the rules, according to a CRTC news release issued Monday. During that period, the company made more than 96,000 unsolicited calls to Canadians whose numbers were on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), some of which were outside the permitted hours for telemarketing activities. Ontario Consumers Home Services also failed to subscribe to the list, the CRTC said.
In the case of Blue Dream, between September 2016 and July 2018, the company sent telemarketing faxes to consumers who had registered their numbers on the National DNCL or had asked the company to add their numbers on its internal do-not-call list. In addition, Blue Dream failed to subscribe to the National DNCL for all the area codes that it contacted for telemarketing purposes. This is the second time the CRTC has imposed a penalty on Blue Dream for non-compliant telemarketing faxes.
Ontario Consumers Home Services was active in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning sector, while Blue Dream engages in window and door installation and in flyer delivery services.
“Companies who do business in Canada simply can’t overlook the rules. Negligent and non-compliant entities, especially those that repeatedly break the rules, need to understand that they will be held to account for the nuisance they cause Canadians. We thank all those who submitted complaints about these two companies, which helped us conduct a thorough investigation,” said Steven Harroun, the CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer, in the news release.
Companies can access the National DNCL online by registering their organization and purchasing a subscription. A telemarketing telecommunication is restricted to the following hours: 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends. These hours are those of the consumer receiving the telecommunication.
The Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules are a set of strict rules that individuals, companies and organizations must follow when making telemarketing telecommunications. To date, the CRTC’s enforcement efforts have yielded more than $9 million in monetary penalties.
