Employee app reviews cost Bell $1.25M

Media | 10/14/2015 6:42 pm EDT

The Competition Bureau said Wednesday it has reached a deal with BCE Inc. in which the company will pay a fine of $1.25 million for urging employees to make positive online reviews about Bell apps. The bureau added in a press release that Bell has also agreed to "enhance and maintain its corporate compliance program, with a specific focus on prohibiting the rating, ranking or reviewing of apps in app stores by employees and contractors." Certain employees were encouraged in November last year to write positive reviews about the MyBell Mobile and Virgin My Account apps on the Apple...

Bell employees caught reviewing company’s products

Media | 11/27/2014 8:36 pm EST

A former marketing professional and now a critic of the industry has identified several BCE Inc. employees he says have been writing positive reviews of one of their own company's products on Apple Inc.'s App Store. Scott Stratten, president of UnMarketing, wrote in a blog post this week that he has linked positive reviews of MyBell Mobile with different Bell employees, by tracing their names through the professional social networking site, LinkedIn. Bell employees identified on Stratten's blog as making these reviews include associate director Mike McEnery, performance manager Charbel Nassif, marketing manager Steph Steen, computer applications support associate Vince Caputo, IT executive Saad Saade and senior project manager Tori Brown. Bell spokesman Paolo Pasquini said...