A Québec man is taking on Canada’s telecom giants, calling on the CRTC to ban what he describes as a growing wave of “junk fees” and “dark patterns” that he says have taken over the wireless market in 2025.
Émile Arsalane filed a formal Part 1 application on December 8, 2025, after seeing major carriers roll out industry-wide penalties that he argues are disguised as discounts. Arsalane reached out to iPhone in Canada to share details of his filing, saying he is trying to encourage as many people as possible to submit comments to the CRTC.
Arsalane argues that large wireless providers have “instituted $10-per-month penalties (disguised as ‘discounts’) for customers who pay by credit card or make manual bill payments.” He claims this creates a tiered pricing system that effectively penalizes customers based on how they pay. The application notes that “the Commission has already expressed skepticism about payment-method surcharges” and argues that a discount unavailable to some customers is “functionally identical to a surcharge.”
The filing also targets the use of third-party financial data services such as Plaid, which Arsalane describes as “coercive.” He argues that wireless service providers fail to clearly disclose the involvement of third parties and associated risks before customers sign up, while downplaying alternatives.
According to the application, these third parties may gain access to “complete transaction histories, balances, account-holder information, and other account metadata, far beyond what is needed to process a simple debit.” Arsalane says the option to manually enter banking details for pre-authorized debit is often hidden or made difficult to find.
Beyond monthly billing practices, the application calls out $80 connection fees and what Arsalane describes as “punitive” charges of up to $20 for electronic copies of past bills after a customer cancels service. He argues that “carriers create the problem by revoking online access to statements and then profit from it by charging a fee to restore access.”
The application specifically references Telus, pointing to a 2022 incident when the Commission received thousands of interventions after the company attempted to introduce credit card processing fees. Arsalane argues that today’s market is “characterized by uniform, non-cost-based punitive fees” and that “market forces alone have failed to discipline these practices,” with carriers appearing to “have adopted these fees in lockstep.”
“I am trying to get people to add their comments with the CRTC,” Arsalane said. He described his filing as the “Part 1 Application Regarding Conditional ‘Discounts’ for Automated Bank Debits, Payment Processing Penalties, Third-Party Data Aggregators, Connection Fees, Post-Cancellation e-Statement Charges, and Ancillary Fees in the 2025 Retail Wireless Market.”
Telus filed its response with the CRTC on December 19, 2025, asking the regulator to pause consideration of Arsalane’s application, and shared a copy of the filing with iPhone in Canada on January 2. In its filing, Telus argues that the issues raised are already being examined in three related CRTC proceedings focused on removing barriers to switching wireless and internet providers. The reply was sent by Telus Vice-President of Telecom Policy and Chief Regulatory Legal Counsel Stephen Schmidt, and was also carbon copied to Rogers, Bell, Québecor, and Arsalane.
Telus says those consultations, which stem from recent amendments to the Telecommunications Act, are specifically reviewing whether certain fees should be prohibited as “junk fees.” The company argues that ruling on the application now would be premature and could lead to duplicative or conflicting decisions, given that the Commission is still deliberating on the broader legal framework governing these fees.
Arsalane’s application asks the CRTC to mandate that the lowest advertised price be available to all customers, prohibit third-party access to bank credentials, and cap connection fees at a “reasonable cost-recovery level” of $10.
The CRTC has not yet said whether it will grant Telus’ request to pause the application. Arsalane is encouraging Canadian telecom customers to participate in the proceeding here (scroll down and click ‘Submit’).
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Well, there's still one Canadian that's not sleepwalking…..
We are guilty for not taking any attitude and letting the monopoly have its way with customers. I'm a prime example, crawling back to Robbers after a brief stint with Freedom (Videotron).