TORONTO – Virgin chair Sir Richard Branson has called for the establishment of new standards for the mobile industry that would abolish “bogus” fees and force mobile companies to stop “misleading consumers”.
In an apparent response to Rogers’ plan to drop its system access fee but add a new fee called the government regulatory recovery fee, Virgin has launched a national ad campaign that it says “directly calls out Rogers’ bogus fee”.
“I’d like to congratulate Rogers for removing one fee that never made sense, but I’m perplexed to hear that they’ve replaced it with another equally confusing one”, Branson said in a statement. “I suppose that they hoped by putting ‘Government’ in the title that people would assume the fee is legitimate. It clearly states in Rogers’ own advertising fine print that ‘It is not a tax or charge that the government requires Rogers to collect.’ Are they deliberately trying to mislead the public?"
Virgin said that it will also petition industry authorities about its concerns, and push for the establishment of “more stringent standards to protect consumers”.
