Montreal law firm LPC Avocat has requested authorization to file a class action against telecommunications giant Rogers Communications following the outage of its network last Friday, which left many Canadians with no service for at least 15 hours.
The action applies to all Rogers, Fido and Chatr Mobile customers who were deprived of service last Friday and Saturday, as well as all Quebecers who were unable to carry out certain banking transactions (Interac payments and e-transfers, for example) because of the failure.
The class action alleges that Rogers violated Quebec’s consumer protection act by not providing service on July 8 and 9. It further alleges that Rogers misled consumers by claiming to have the “most reliable network in Canada”.
It seeks compensatory and punitive damages for all members. Among other things, $400 is claimed for each client of the three targeted suppliers. The amount that could be claimed for Quebecers who are not clients of these carriers but were nonetheless affected by the outage has not yet been specified.
A second class action request has also been filed in court on behalf of retailers and entrepreneurs (such as taxi drivers) who may have lost significant income due to the inability to process payments through the Interac network, which was affected by the Rogers outage.