Canada's Competition Bureau has filed law suit against the three leading telecom service providers in the country claiming that they helped third party companies to dupe customers into paying hefty fines and also earned a share of the revenue.

The Competition Bureau filed three separate lawsuits against Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp for playing a role in misleading customers. The company is claiming $10 million each from the three firms.

The authority has also filed a case against the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) for 1 million as an administrative penalty for facilitating the premium text services. The authority had conducted an investigation into the matter for period of five months and decided to take the legal action after studying the findings of the investigations.

Bureau commissioner Melanie Aitken said, "Our investigation revealed that consumers were under the false impression that certain texts and apps were free. Unfortunately, in far too many cases, consumers only became aware of unexpected and unauthorized charges on their mobile phone bills."

The Competition Bureau has kept its investigations open and has asked the telecom players to stop the practice.