Report: The CCTS Releases its 2020 Compliance Monitoring Report

The report identifies the compliance monitoring and enforcement activities of the organization

 

Ottawa (July 29, 2021) – 

Today, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) published its 2020 Compliance Monitoring Report (CMR), an annual report which provides the results of the CCTS’s Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program. The report includes data from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 and highlights the main areas of non-compliance by the organization’s participating service providers (PSPs).

“To ensure that the CCTS provides free and effective services to consumers whenever they need it, our participating service providers must comply with a range of requirements,” said Janet Lo, Assistant Commissioner for Legal, Regulatory and Stakeholder Affairs. “This includes following the rules for the CCTS’ complaint-handling process, telling their customers about the CCTS in accordance with the CCTS Public Awareness Plan, and paying CCTS fees.”

The CCTS actively monitors these requirements and works with non-compliant PSPs to bring them into compliance. When a PSP continues to be non-compliant, the CCTS has a range of enforcement tools that include publicly naming those PSPs, and ultimately the power to terminate their participation in the organization. Expulsion triggers a referral to the CRTC for further action, because it is a regulatory requirement for these service providers to participate in the CCTS.

The CCTS prioritizes compliance related to allegations of non-implementation of agreed-upon resolutions or binding Recommendations and Decisions by the CCTS. While the 2020 CMR reports that these major non-compliance issues decreased overall, these incidents remain a priority for the CCTS as they delay a customer’s access to redress. In these cases, the CCTS will engage the PSP to ensure swift implementation.

The CMR also reported that although the overall number of compliance issues seemed to remain similar, there was a large increase in engagement with PSPs to address lower priority compliance matters. It was noted that many PSPs were willing to participate in the process of resolving non-compliance issues with the CCTS and their consumers. The CCTS will continue working with PSPs to promote compliance activities while keeping the public informed about major compliance issues.

The CCTS’s Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program also monitors compliance with the obligation to join the CCTS, which is triggered when one of a service provider’s customers files a complaint with the CCTS. The 2020 CMR reports that out of the 36 telecommunications or TV service providers that were required to join the CCTS, four failed to do so and were referred to the CRTC. Of the four, two providers had joined the CCTS in early 2021.