User Fees Considered a Tax

In an interesting article on CBC, the Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that governments that charge user fees, can’t do so, as it is effectively a tax. In our system (Canada), taxes can’t be imposed without representation. I am sure the US has the same sort of tax laws, with respect to this.
Why am I posting this here? Well, there has been an interesting discussion over cellular companies charging access fees, every month, which the companies have said is something that is collected on behalf of the federal government. A class action lawsuit was launched in 2004, saying the cell companies had misled the public about the monthly access fees, saying they were mandatory. Now, you can argue that this may be a separate issue, compared to the SOC ruling this week, however, with the precedent set from the SOC on user fees versus taxation without representation, I would think that the class action suit will start to have some merit against the big cell companies, if it’s true that the monthly system access fee, or a portion thereof, actually does go to the government.
If the monthly fee does go to the government, then perhaps there may be a positive correction in telecommunications stock in Canada, if people start putting 2 and 2 together. In my case, my system access fee amounts to about 30% of my monthly service contract…having this amount reduced, may make cell plans more attractive to the public, thereby increasing susbscriber growth projections, as things start to weed out in court.
This may take awhile to play out in the courts, but it will definitely help in telecom price targets, if the cell system access fee is determined to be a user fee collected on behalf of the government. Cell providers and equipment manufacturers will benefit with a favorable ruling against the monthly system access fee.