Court certifies class-action suit against cellphone system access fees

REGINA - A Saskatchewan court has certified a class-action lawsuit that accuses Canadian cellphone companies of profiting from charging customers system access fees over and above their regular service costs.


The lawsuit claims "unjust enrichment" because providers make the fees look like they are being charged by federal regulators or going to maintain the system when they are really going to the companies and their bottom lines, Regina lawyer Tony Merchant said Wednesday.


"It's based on the failure to disclose that this is just money going into the pocket of the company," Merchant said.


"It wasn't an add-on charge. It wasn't something they were paying to the government. It wasn't a disbursement to maintain the system. It was just an additional charge over and above the charge that they told you about and we say that's wrong."


The suit tackles all the big Canadian cellphone providers, including Rogers, Bell and Telus.


Messages left at Rogers and Telus were not immediately returned. A spokesman for Bell said the company does not discuss matters that are before the courts.


System access fees were originally paid by the consumer directly to Industry Canada when the cellular phone industry was in its infancy, said Marc Choma, with the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.


That was changed in the mid-1980s when cellphone companies became responsible for collecting the fees from customers and Industry Canada raised the licensing fees it charged to companies.


"What each carrier does with that money and how they collect it and how much they collect for a system access fee is up to the individual service provider," Choma said.


"To this day wireless carriers continue to pay $150 million each year to Industry Canada for use of the airwaves."


Most companies charge system access fees of $6.95 a month, Merchant said.


Merchant estimates that companies make more than $1.2 billion annually charging the extra money to Canada's 15 million cellphone users.


He puts the value of the lawsuit at more than $12 billion, plus interest, which has been collected in customer charges over the years.