Canada’s advertising watchdog says Telus misled consumers with an advertisement that claimed “it’s a myth that Canadians pay some of the highest wireless prices in the world.”
In a recent decision from Ad Standards Canada, the industry regulator found that a full-page Telus newspaper campaign in Quebec mixed up issues of affordability and price to give the impression wireless prices were lower in Canada than other countries.
The claim was based on a 2019 PricewaterhouseCoopers study on wireless affordability in Canada.
But members of the self-regulating advertising industry council said in a unanimous decision that the study didn’t back up the claim.
“There was no support in the cited study for the claim that it is a myth Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the world for wireless,” the council said in a decision posted on its website.
“The study discussed affordability, rather than price, and it only addressed four countries in total, rather than most, or all, countries in the world.”
According to the decision, Telus did not provide a response to the complaint, which came from a member of the public.
Telus told the CBC it would provide a response to an inquiry about the case at a later point.
Claim still part of public campaign
The “myth” claim is still prominent on a Telus website critical of government policies and regulations around the telecommunications industry.
The Vancouver-based firm also argues the same point in a form letter available on the website. Telus urges Canadians to send their politicians the letter to express “concern regarding the erroneous depiction of the telecommunications industry in Canada” as part of a political campaign.
The same claim that was found to be misleading by Ad Standards Canada is still part of an online campaign by Telus to fight government policies and regulation in the telecommunications industry. (connectingcanadaforgood.com)
“When it comes to wireless affordability, third-party studies have confirmed that Canada offers some of the most affordable wireless prices in the world,” the letter says.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers study compared wireless expenditures in 2016 in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Average household expenditures on wireless and devices for that year totalled $977 in Canada, $1,124 in the U.S., $808 in Australia and $612 in the U.K..
The study then compared the affordability of wireless in all countries except for the U.S. based on five different levels of income and found wireless more affordable in the U.K. across the board.
Canada beat Australia for affordability for all but the lowest category of wage earners.
Leap in logic
The Ad Standards council said Telus could legitimately cite the PricewaterhouseCoopers study to say Canadians spend less on wireless than Americans.
But the council said the “myth” claim about pricing was a leap in logic.
“Council determined that if Canadians are spending a smaller percentage of disposable income on wireless than Americans, it does not necessarily follow that the prices for wireless are lower in Canada than they are in the U.S.,” the regulator said.
“In council’s view, the advertisement incorrectly conflated affordability and pricing, and in assessing the truthfulness and accuracy of the advertisement, this claim strongly impacted the general impression conveyed.”
The Ad Standards council does not discuss details of its deliberations, which happen before panels which are generally made up of seven people — four from the industry and three from the general public.
In an email, the council said that if an ad is found to contravene the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, the advertiser is asked ot amend or permanently withdraw the ad. The council doesn’t have the ability to levy fines, but they can report violations to the Competition Bureau.
Earlier this year, the Liberal government gave Canada’s biggest three wireless providers two years to cut basic prices for cell phone service by 25 per cent.
A 2019 price comparison study released in conjunction with that announcement found that Canadians have been paying more overall for wireless than people in other G7 countries and Australia.
The government told Bell, Telus and Rogers to reduce the cost of their two to six gigabyte data plans by 25 per cent within the next two years. That would mean offering a talk, text and data plan costing less than $40 monthly.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
