The Competition Bureau has announced that a national phone card supplier has been required to pay refunds and a penalty of Cdn. $300,000.
Ontario-based Phonetime Inc. will offer refunds to consumer that bought Bravo! and Bravo! Atlantic prepaid long-distance phone cards.
According to the federal Competition Bureau, this settlement followed a Bureau investigation into misleading representations relating to Phonetime’s advertising of pre-paid long-distance phone cards, including hidden fees and and per-minute rates (as well as fewer minutes than advertised).
The Bureau stated in its News Release:
“This is the second case involving prepaid long-distance telephone calling cards that the Competition Bureau has investigated and resolved,” said Andrea Rosen, Deputy Commissioner of Competition, Fair Business Practices Branch. “The Bureau has clearly communicated its concerns to the phone card industry and any company found to be misleading consumers could become the target of an investigation.”
This case shows that misleading advertising and deceptive marketing practices, together with criminal cartels, remain enforcement priorities for the Bureau.
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We practice federal competition law, have provided competition law and compliance advice to clients across Canada and internationally and provide a full range of competition law services in relation to the criminal conspiracy, merger, abuse of dominance, misleading advertising and deceptive marketing provisions of the federal Competition Act. Our misleading advertising and marketing law services include advice in relation to:
- The general misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act.
- “Ordinary selling price” provisions (sales).
- Promotional contests.
- Multi-level marketing plans.
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- Telemarketing.
- Deceptive prize notices.
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- Performance claims & comparative advertising.
- Scope of the recent Competition Act amendments.
- Consumer packaging and labeling legislation.
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