Rogers Communications Inc. has been ordered to pay a $15-million administrative penalty over the marketing of its “Infinite” wireless phone plans.
The Competition Bureau filed an application with the Competition Tribunal in December 2024, alleging that Rogers ads created the false or misleading impression that the plans offer limitless data when in reality service is severely throttled once a data cap is reached.
A summary of the tribunal’s decision was released Wednesday, with the reasons expected to be made public within 10 business days.
The tribunal also ordered Rogers to issue a corrective notice and pay the bureau’s legal costs.
The Competition Bureau had asked for a $15-million penalty alongside customer refunds, or a $135-million penalty if the tribunal decided refunds weren’t appropriate.
Jeanne Pratt, the interim competition commissioner, said Canadians rely on accurate and truthful information when choosing essential services like wireless plans.
“Misleading advertising can distort consumer choice, erode confidence in the marketplace and disadvantage businesses that compete fairly,” Pratt said in a statement.
“We look forward to the tribunal publishing the details of its decision in the coming weeks.”
Rogers said the plans introduced in 2019 helped eliminate overage fees at a time when data use started growing exponentially.
“These plans are commonplace in the industry and reflected a significant and positive development for consumers and small businesses,” the company said in a statement.
“We stand behind our advertising and are considering next steps.”
The company said last year in a defence filing that the bureau was unreasonably targeting the company for an advertising format that all other major telecom providers have also used.
The competition commissioner at the time wrote in a response that the fact that other wireless carriers may have copied Rogers was an “aggravating factor, not a mitigating one.”
Other telecom companies in Canada also advertise plans with “unlimited” data that reduce speeds, generally to up to 512 kilobits per second, after a threshold is reached. Like Rogers, they usually note the actual speeds for the unlimited data in the footnotes.
As part of an earlier legal response to the bureau, Rogers said from a practical perspective, Infinite customers get access to high-speed mobile data in such significant quantities that it is effectively unlimited for their purposes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2026.
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