Eats, shoots and pays $2.13 million

A single superfluous comma has cost a canadian telecommunications company millions more than they expected. From the Globe and Mail:

Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

The validity of the contract and the millions of dollars at stake all came down to one point — the second comma in the sentence.

Had it not been there, the right to cancel wouldn't have applied to the first five years of the contract and Rogers would be protected from the higher rates it now faces.

“Based on the rules of punctuation,” the comma in question “allows for the termination of the [contract] at any time, without cause, upon one-year's written notice,” the regulator said.

According to USC professor Bart Kosko in this month's Wired Magazine: "The comma is on its way out". Noise is his latest book and it is comma free.