CIPPIC represents OpenMedia.ca at Federal Court of Appeal hearing on Implemention of Wireless Code

CIPPIC appeared before the Federal Court of Appeal today, on behalf of OpenMedia.ca, arguing for thetimely application of a Wireless Consumer Protection Code developed by the CRTC and imposed on providers of mobile services. The appeal, lodged by a number of mobile service providers, seeks to delay the application of the Wireless Code for existing service contracts until the term of those contracts expires (the standard term for wireless service contracts is three years). The argument is that the CRTC does not have the legislative authority to impose the protections in the Wireless Code onto pre-existing consumer contracts because this constitutes an interference with vested rights. CIPPIC argued that, first of all, there is no interference with vested rights as the Wireless Code primarily focuses on mitigating future penalties (by, for example, limiting the penalties a service provider can impose on a customer for leaving a service term early). Moreover, given the important and central objective of preventing 3 year customer lock-out to the proper functioning of the comprehensive regulatory regime entrusted to the CRTC, the regulator has the legislative power to interfere with vested rights if it is reasonable to do so.

For more information, see our resource page for Bell et al. v. Amtelecom et al.: https://cippic.ca/telecom/Bell_v_Amtelecom_Wireless_Code_Appeal