They Charged Me to Cancel. Is That Legal?

What Is Banned

Some of the most familiar line items on a Canadian phone or internet bill became illegal in 2026:

• Cellphone cancellation fees — a charge for the act of leaving. A “deactivation charge”, or an early cancellation fee on a wireless plan with no subsidized device, is exactly what this killed. Note the word cellphone. The Commission rewrote the early cancellation rule in the Wireless Code and left the equivalent rule in the Internet Code alone.
• Activation fees — a charge for turning a plan on. Signing up is not a service they get to bill you for.
• Change fees — a charge for modifying an existing plan, including changes made through an agent on the phone.

On the wireless side it reaches every wireless provider — the national carriers, the regional players, the flanker brands, the discount MVNOs — and covers individual and small business customers alike. On the internet side it is narrower: it covers individual customers of internet providers that are subject to the Internet Code, which is not every internet provider in the country. The mechanism was an amendment to the Wireless Code and the Internet Code — the rulebooks governing wireless and internet contracts — flowing from changes to the Telecommunications Act that came into force on October 30, 2025.

What Is Still Chargeable

More than most coverage of this decision suggests. Four things survived:

• The balance on a subsidized device. If your contract included a phone you have been paying off through your monthly plan, the provider can still collect what is outstanding when you leave early. That is a device balance, not an exit penalty — and on a bring-your-own-device plan there is no balance to owe.
• An early cancellation fee on a fixed-term internet contract. This is the one most people get wrong. The Internet Code still lets a provider charge an early cancellation fee where the contract sets one out, for the lesser of 24 months or your contract term, declining to zero across that period. On a month-to-month internet plan there is no such fee.
• A reasonable fee for physically installing service at your home or business. The Commission carved this out deliberately, reasoning that installation is a real and sometimes significant cost and that banning it could slow broadband rollout.
• Anything genuinely optional that you chose to buy — the Commission's own examples were Wi-Fi configuration and extra equipment not needed to deliver the service. Equipment you fail to return can still be billed as well; 2026-43 does not touch non-return charges.

Were Internet Cancellation Fees Banned? No.

Some coverage of the March 2026 decision said internet cancellation fees were gone. They are not. Policy 2026-43 rewrote the early cancellation rule in the Wireless Code and left the one in the Internet Code as it was. For the large internet providers bound by the Internet Code, this is what still applies:

• Month-to-month plan: no early cancellation fee at all. That rule is older than 2026-43.
• Fixed-term contract, no subsidized equipment: the fee has to be written into your contract. The Code sets no dollar cap, but the fee can only apply for the lesser of 24 months or your contract term, and it has to reach zero by the end of that period.
• Fixed-term contract with a subsidized device: the fee cannot be more than the subsidy, and it has to drop by an equal amount each month until it reaches zero.
• A trial period. When the contract carries a cancellation fee you get at least 15 calendar days (30 if you self-identify as having a disability). Cancel inside it, under half your monthly usage, with the equipment back in near-new condition, and there is no fee.
• No notice period. You can cancel at any time, and the provider has to cancel on the day you ask.

So on an internet exit fee the useful questions are narrow: is it the amount your contract sets out, and has it come down for the months you have already served?

What Rogers, Bell and Telus Charge When You Leave

None of the three publishes one figure. All of them point you to your own agreement, which is where the amount has to be.

• Rogers. On an internet or TV term, Rogers says the fee is the one in your service agreement and depends on your term and the months left. Leaving a cellphone plan, the final bill includes whatever is left of your device subsidy. Unreturned equipment can be billed too. Rogers complaint guide
• Bell. Bell says leaving a fixed-term contract early means an early cancellation fee, and sends you to your agreement or MyBell for the amount. On a SmartPay phone plan the remaining device payments come due at once, and Bell still calls that total an “early cancellation fee”. It is a device balance; ask for it itemized. Bell complaint guide
• Telus. Telus says month-to-month internet customers can cancel any time and customers on a term pay an early-termination fee. The amount varies by offer, so check the agreement you signed. Telus complaint guide

If the fee on your final bill is not the one in your agreement, or has not come down as the months passed, that is a dispute the CCTS takes. The steps are below.

It Does Not Cover Your TV Service

Policy 2026-43 is a telecom decision. It covers cellphone and internet plans. Television and broadcasting distribution services sit under a separate statutory framework — one with no equivalent fee ban, and no self-service cancellation mandate either. If the charge you are disputing is on the TV portion of your bill, this rule does not help you, and you are back to your contract and the TVSP Code.

That gap between how a telecom subscriber and a TV subscriber get treated is the running theme of this site, and it got wider on June 12.

Getting the Charge Removed

1. Keep the bill. A charge dated after June 12, 2026 for activation or a plan change — or for cancelling a cellphone plan with no device on it — is the whole case. You do not need to argue; you need to point. If the charge is an exit fee on a fixed-term internet contract, read the contract first: that one may well be allowed.
2. Ask them to remove it, citing Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2026-43 by name. Get a reference number for the call and note who you spoke to.
3. Escalate if they refuse. Most providers run a management-team escalation form — our provider guides give the path for each one.
4. Take it to the CCTS if it stays on your bill. The Wireless and Internet Codes are exactly what the CCTS enforces in individual disputes. It is free, it is independent of your provider, and it can order billing corrections and compensation of up to $5,000. Reach it at 1-888-221-1687.

What to Write

Paste this into the CCTS form, or send it to your provider first. Factual and specific beats long and angry:

For an activation or plan-change fee, on a cellphone or an internet account, swap the middle sentence for this: "Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2026-43 prohibits fees incurred as a result of activating a new retail service plan or modifying an existing one, in force since June 12, 2026, and this charge was not for the physical installation of service at my premises, nor for any optional product or service I explicitly chose to purchase."

If your plan did include a subsidized phone, drop the device sentence and instead ask them to itemize the charge — you are entitled to know how much of it is device balance and how much is an exit fee. And if the charge is an exit fee on a fixed-term internet contract, 2026-43 is not your argument. Ask instead whether the fee matches what your contract actually set out, and whether it was properly reduced for the months you had already served.