A customer of Fido, a subsidiary of Rogers Media, gave his cellphone to his 11-year-old son during a family holiday in Mexico. The father put the phone on airplane mode so his son would not incur roaming charges but apparently the son turned off the airplane mode and downloaded videos and movies. He had downloaded 758 megabytes of data (about 12 hours of YouTube streaming) and incurred $22 000 in data charges when Fido texted the father indicating that the phone was being shut down for security reasons and excessively high data charges. The father had not purchased an international roaming package as he had not planned to use any data while on vacation.

The media picked up on the story and it led to a debate in Vancouver and across Canada about international roaming fees and whether Canadians are charged too much by their cell phone providers. The story started to spin out of control and Rogers was accused of price gouging. Rogers offered to cut the charges to $2200 then $500 and settled for $200. Why would a company that may have been within its rights to enforce its legal contract with the customer settle the matter for very little money? What is the risk for Rogers in not settling this matter?