Telus had applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for permission to add a 1.5 per cent surcharge on bills for certain services under the regulator’s supervision, if the customers paid by credit card. No, the commission said Thursday, and if you or anybody else does it for other telecom services, you won’t like what we do. (The Logic)

Talking point: The CRTC has wide authority, but “forbears” from using it in markets where it judges that competition is enough to protect consumers. In Telus’s case, it mainly scrutinizes landline service in more remote parts of Alberta and British Columbia. A class-action settlement this year allowed vendors to charge customers extra to defray the cut credit-card companies take from payments using their cards. The CRTC decision was specifically about Telus’s relatively few regulated services, but it said credit-card fees make telecom service less affordable and if telcos charge them, “the commission is prepared to explore all available regulatory options in the near future.”