PIAC Report: “Selling Speed: Reforming Broadband Advertising Regulations in Canada”

Once assessed in light of the information presented to the consumer in the body of the advertisement, the impression is fixed as the impression of the average consumer… the trial judge [must] also examine the literal meaning of the representation in determining whether the advertisement is false or misleading. [...] The CRTC indicated that ISPs should provide or link such information on the web pages that describe the offered internet services and reference the online disclosures in relevant marketing materials, customer contracts, and terms of service.37 In 2018 and 2019, the CRTC reviewed compliance and found that “the information regarding the technical ITMPs employed by those ISPs, with the exception of C. [...] If the user’s bandwidth cannot keep up with the size of the content, the user will experience excessive buffering, or the streaming service will downgrade the video quality to compensate for the slow download speed. [...] However, these results should be qualified by the fact that the study is actually extremely limited in scope, as the methodology was “designed to provide accurate data on the broadband performance experienced by the majority of Canadian fixed-line broadband users.”84 Several aspects of the methodology and sample limit the real-world applicability of the conclusions. [...] Lastly, though the Commission could not have anticipated the pandemic, the 2020 Report is now of limited utility in the context of the current pandemic, which has strained broadband networks and stretched the limits of consumers’ services.