Firms failing to meet rules concerning complaints
Canada’s telecom and television complaints watchdog says many telecom providers aren’t following complaints section rules on their websites, and it’s particularly concerned about some repeat offenders.
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) released its annual compliance report on Thursday. The report found just over half of the 51 communications providers audited didn’t have an easily accessible complaints section on their website.
Just 35 per cent of providers were fully compliant with requirements to inform their customers about the CCTS on their respective websites in both official languages.
However, the watchdog characterized that as a “positive” result, as it was an increase from just 14 per cent that were fully compliant in 2019.
The report measures the industry’s performance in following the watchdog’s complaint-handling process.
“The good news is that every year we do these audits, most of the providers do work with us to fully address their compliance issues,” said Janet Lo, CCTS assistant commissioner for legal, regulatory and stakeholder affairs.
The report found 29 per cent of audited companies were non-compliant entirely. The commission requires search functions to direct visitors to information about the CCTS’ dispute resolution process when looking up relevant keywords.
Despite annual reminders of those rules, the report said both Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. have been non-compliant with search requirements in four of the past five years.
Lo said naming companies that break the rules is one tool at the commission’s disposal to enforce the obligations in the case of recurring compliance issues. In severe cases, Lo said the CCTS would consider expelling the company from its membership. That would prompt the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to get involved and open the door for financial penalties.