TELUS has filed a lawsuit against new wireless entrant Mobilicity alleging a TV ad aired by the latter is “false and misleading”, according to a notice of civil claim filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia filed on December 7th.
TELUS alleges a Mobilicity ad spot contains three “misrepresentations” that damages its brand and that Mobilicity is in breach of the Competition Act. According to the Globe and Mail:
In particular, Telus is taking issue with the commercial’s claim that “what you see isn’t always what you get” with other wireless networks with respect to unlimited offers.
Moreover, Telus alleges that Mobilicity claims to offer wireless services with “no contracts” even though its services are governed by service terms and conditions. The lawsuit also alleges that Mobilicity makes a “false” claim of offering unlimited data – even though its data plans are subject to a fair use policy that authorizes the carrier to use throttling to slow down the data speeds of heavy users.
TELUS wants Mobilicity to pull their TV ad spot, remove any marketing materials using the same claims, as well as seeking unspecified costs and “other relief”. Telus spokesman Shawn Hall:
“The ads damage Telus’s brand with false claims and must be pulled from circulation immediately,” said
Mobilicity says it will defend itself in court, according to chief operating officer Stewart Lyons:
“Telus is trying to get us to pull our ads. They are trying to intimidate us,” Mr. Lyons said. “They are using high-priced lawyers to compete when they don’t feel like competing out on the street.”
A court date is scheduled for December 14th, where TELUS will seek to halt the Mobilicity TV commercials.
