Rogers fights for freedom of expression rights of cell phone companies

Canadian wireless communications provider (among other things) Rogers Communications will be in Ontario Superior Court on Tuesday arguing with the Competition bureau, reports Sarah Schmidt of Postmedia News:

“In the first of its kind in Canada, Rogers will ask the Ontario Superior Court to strike down a key provision in the federal law requiring companies to have “adequate and proper” tests of a product’s performance before making performance claims in advertisements. Rogers says this testing requirement violates its right to freedom of expression enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

(Click here to read Cellphone case challenges Competition Act)

Or in other words, Rogers is arguing that it has the Charter right to make whatever performance claims about its products that it wants, whether it has any actual evidence to back up those claims or not.

Perhaps the corporate giant is taking a page from its sports properties (the Toronto Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, Raptors and TFC), whose management routinely make performance claims (we’ll totally compete for the playoffs this year…my friend the coach has done such an awesome job that he deserved a lucrative contract extension…) based on no supporting evidence whatsoever. Perhaps sports fans need a Competition Bureau of their own?

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Jeff Jedras
Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN. His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.

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