The lawyer overseeing a class action lawsuit against Rogers for the July 2022 national outage says a request for authorization to launch the suit will likely be heard in June 2o23.
Lawyer Joey Zoukran of LPC Avocat Inc. emailed the Montreal Gazette on March 31st to share the news. Zoukran explained that Rogers’ request to file preliminary evidence contesting the class action was granted. The hearing for authorization will likely take place at the Montreal courthouse on June 22nd.
Authorization (or certification as it’s called outside of Quebec) is part of the process that turns a lawsuit into a class action. This is also when the court determines if all the plaintiffs share a common claim and meet various criteria. CTV News has a great explainer on class actions you can view here.
The lawsuit against Rogers alleges the company’s compensation for the July 2022 outage wasn’t adequate. Instead, it seeks $400 for each customer of Rogers or its subsidiary brands like Fido and Chatr that lost service during the outage.
The outage started early the morning of July 8th and lasted two days or more in some regions. Rogers said a maintenance update in its core network caused the outage, which took down various services, including internet and calling, across Canada.
Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne previously said the outage would be a factor in the Shaw merger decision, but Champagne greenlit the merger on March 31st, 2023.
Source: Montreal Gazette
