Bell tells customers class action suit against its former per-minute rounding will proceed

Bell recently sent out emails notifying certain past and present customers that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has allowed a class action suit against the telecom to proceed.

In its email, the operator outlines the action, which alleges Bell is in breach of its contracts with customers and consumer protection legislation by its billing practice of rounding up calls to the next full minute, affecting customers subscribed between August 18th, 2006 and October 1st, 2009. The company says it denies any liability, but notes that customers may be eligible for compensation if it receives an unfavourable verdict.

Affected customers are automatically included in the class action, but can choose to exclude themselves if they submit an opt-out form by April 30th, 2017.

The law firms guiding the suit, Rochon Genova and Karp Litigation, have provided more detailed instructions on the Rochon Genova website and a dedicated perminuteclassaction.com website. The lawsuit first gained publicity alongside a similar per-minute rounding suit against Telus in November 2014. The Telus case appears to remain static.

The per-minute rounding practice meant that if customer calls extended one second past a minute, for instance, the customer would receive billing for two minutes’ use.

Source: Rochon Genova