Bell Canada fined for breaking ‘do not call’ rules

OTTAWA – The CRTC has hit Bell Canada with a $1.3-million penalty for violating federal Do Not Call rules.

The telecommunications regulator found that independent telemarketers hired by Bell made unsolicited calls to Canadians to sell TV, telephone and Internet services.

The consumers affected were registered on the National Do Not Call list, or had asked Bell Canada to be put on the company’s internal do-not-call list.

The CRTC and Bell Canada came to a settlement on the size of the administrative penalty – the biggest paid out to date under the two-year-old Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.

The regulator also found that Bell broke Do Not Call rules by using automated calling devices to contact prepaid mobile customers.

Bell Canada didn’t admit it was at fault in that case, but voluntarily stopped the calls and made a $266,000 donation to the Institute for Information and Systems Engineering at Concordia University.