The Competition Bureau is suing Rogers, accusing the company of misleading customers with its “unlimited data” claims for its Infinite mobile plans.
Rogers advertises these plans as offering unlimited data, but the Bureau says that’s not the case. After customers use up their monthly data allotment, their internet speeds are slowed down—or “throttled”—by over 99%. This makes the plans far from truly unlimited.
“Once you have reached the high-speed data allotment of your plan, you will continue to have access to data services with no overage beyond the high-speed data allotment at a reduced speed of up to 512 kilobits per second (for both upload and download) until the end of your current billing cycle,” explains the Rogers website fine print when it comes to its Infinite plans.
The Bureau has filed a case with the Competition Tribunal, demanding Rogers stop using these claims in its ads, pay a financial penalty, and compensate customers who bought the plans.
Ever since Rogers launched its unlimited data plans in 2019, many customers have criticized them for not being truly unlimited. Once users hit their data cap, the throttled speeds make it nearly impossible to use apps or stream content normally. Back in the summer of 2019, Infinite plans started $75/month with 10GB of LTE data. How times have changed in five years.
This isn’t the first time telecom companies in Canada have faced scrutiny for similar claims. In 2016, the Bureau took action against another company, Comwave, for falsely advertising “unlimited” internet services that actually had caps.
The Bureau encourages Canadians to report misleading ads through its online complaint form. As for the timing of this complaint by the Competition Bureau, it was made on Monday afternoon, just days before Christmas. What will come out of this? You can bet Rogers will be defending its Infinite plans in court.
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Imitation of vigorous activity, as usual.
You can always find deals some companies have great plans for around $29.00 monthly which by reasonable providing you don't sign for contract and purchase phone out right.
Really you can't complain about prices when there are pretty reasonable annual plans from $100 – $149.