Case information

Courts — Jurisdiction — Boards and Tribunals — Jurisdiction — Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) — Class action — Abusive nature of resiliation clauses — Whether court may rule on legality of rate for telecommunications services that has been approved in decision of Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

9238 0831 Québec inc., operating as Caféier Boustifo (“Boustifo”), entered into a contract for landline telephone and Internet services with Telebec, Limited Partnership (“Telebec”). The contract included an automatic renewal clause. In addition, Telebec’s general tariff provided for fees in the event of unilateral resiliation by the customer. Telebec informed Boustifo that its contract would be expiring in March 2016 and that, absent notice to the contrary, the contract would be renewed on the same conditions. Having received no notice that Boustifo intended not to renew the contract, Telebec sent it a letter indicating that its contract had been renewed. In April 2018, Boustifo resiliated its landline telephone contract. Telebec then billed it for $1,474.37, plus tax, in resiliation fees, but Boustifo refused to pay. Boustifo applied for authorization to institute a class action in nullity and in damages against Telebec in order to sanction business practices relating to the imposition of contract resiliation fees and to the renewal of fixed-term contracts. The Quebec Superior Court granted the application. Telebec appealed against the application judge’s decision, but the Quebec Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.