Competition Bureau ordered to pay $13M to Rogers for lengthy court battle

Canada’s merger court has ordered the Competition Bureau to pay about $13 million to Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications for the lengthy court battle after its failed attempt to block the telecom firms’ $20-billion merger.

The Competition Tribunal, in a ruling dated Aug. 28, said the Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell’s approach to block the deal was “unreasonable.”

The companies maintained that Boswell “adopted an unnecessarily contentious approach throughout the litigation, which significantly increased the costs that they were required to incur,” the tribunal said.

Sarah Brown, a spokesperson for the Competition Bureau, told CBC News that the bureau stood by its investigation into the merger and its decision to challenge it.

“We are disappointed with some of the Competition Tribunal’s characterizations of the commissioner’s conduct in its reasons regarding the costs awards in this matter,” Brown said.

“The commissioner acted in the public interest to protect competition throughout the entire proceeding and we fundamentally disagree with any suggestion to the contrary.”

The Rogers-Shaw merger had faced intense opposition from Canada’s antitrust regulator, whose efforts to block it were rejected by the Competition Tribunal and a Canadian court.

The bureau’s biggest concern was the deal would lessen competition in a country where wireless bills are already among the highest in the world.

In March, Canada approved Rogers’s buyout of Shaw Communications after securing binding commitments to pay financial penalties if it failed to create new jobs and invest to expand its network.