Charges Laid for Unsolicited Internet Directory Services

OTTAWA, November 30, 2000 — The Competition Bureau announced today that eight charges under the misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act have been laid in Toronto against three individuals and two companies for allegedly invoicing businesses for unsolicited Internet directory listing services.

The charges stem from a Bureau investigation of complaints it received related to documents mailed under the names "Yellow Business Pages" and "Yellow Business Directory" to more than 500,000 businesses and charitable organizations across Canada between May and September of 2000.

The mailings, dated May 25, 2000, July 25, 2000, August 24, 2000 and September 24, 2000, asked recipients to send a payment of $25.52 to a Postal Box in the Toronto area for an Internet directory listing containing their business information. The first mailing of May 25, 2000 was sent under the name "Yellow Business Pages" and the three subsequent mailings were mailed under the name "Yellow Business Directory".

The charges allege two offences for each of the four mailings for having made false or misleading representations.The first misleading representation charge alleges that the mailings were made to appear as invoices or bills when they were in fact solicitations. The second alleged misrepresentation was that recipients were misled to think they were existing customers of the Internet directory service. To date, the Bureau has received more than 1500 complaints.

The two companies charged are Yellow.com Business Pages Corp. and 1421628 Ontario Limited. Charges were also laid against Alan Benlolo and Elliot Benlolo of Thornhill, Ontario and Victor Serfaty, of Richmond Hill, Ontario.

For more information, please contact:

Julie Hébert
Senior Communication Advisor
Communications Directorate
819-953-4257