A Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed After The Rogers Outage & It Says Customers Should Get $400

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Rogers after a recent outage left "millions" of customers without mobile and internet services for a full day or longer.

The class-action suit — which is yet to be authorized by a judge — was filed on Monday, July 11, by the law firm LPC Avocat Inc., to the Quebec Superior Court in Montreal.

It's seeking $400 for Rogers customers who were impacted by the network failure on Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9, 2022.

It also wants Rogers sub-brand customers to be compensated, including those that have services with Fido Mobile and Chatr Mobile.

The outage caused major disruptions across the country, with Canadians reporting problems related to their Rogers internet, phone and TV services.

Passport services were impacted, concertgoers were urged to print their tickets out physically before events, and police even warned that some people may have issues contacting emergency services. Some customers were also unable to make purchases via debit payment systems.

Quebecer Arnaud Verdier, who is named as the applicant in the legal filing, says their wireless phone "did not function all day due to what Rogers claims to have been a network outage."

While Rogers has already promised a credit to customers who were impacted, the class action suit says the offering is "wholly inadequate and does not account for the other damages [...] Class members suffered."

Instead, the class action says the compensatory and punitive damages from Rogers should be $200 per person, as the telecommunications company "did not perform the service stipulated in the contract on July 8-9, 2022."

Furthermore, it says customers should be entitled to an additional $200 per person as Rogers "made false representations with respect to having the most 'reliable' network."

According to the exhibits filed with the suit, Rogers' management instructed stores to remove all advertisements containing the reference "Get on Canada’s Most Reliable 5G Network" on Friday.

The suit says it wants to hold the company accountable for its "negligence and insouciance," as 911 calls were unavailable to class members for "close to 24 hours" during the outage.

This would mean eligible people could qualify for up to $400.

It's also seeking compensation for non-Rogers customers in Quebec who were unable to operate their devices or make debit and Interac e-transfers during the outage period.

Narcity has reached out to Rogers for comment on the lawsuit. This article will be updated if and when a response is received.

In a statement on Saturday, Rogers' CEO Tony Staffieri said the reason for the disruption was "a system failure following a maintenance update in our core network, which caused some of [their] routers to malfunction."

Staffieri said customers will be given an automatic credit for the disruption and promised to earn back Canadians' trust.

"We let you down yesterday. You have my personal commitment that we can, and will, do better."

As of Monday, some customers were still reporting issues with their Rogers services, although the company says its networks and systems are "close to fully operational."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.