Only reform of Canada’s competition law can prevent another Rogers-Shaw
CAMP statement in response to Minister Champagne’s Approval of Rogers-Shaw:
On March 31, 2023, Minister Champagne announced his approval of the Rogers-Shaw takeover. After an unsuccessful challenge by the Competition Bureau in front of the Competition Tribunal and Federal Court of Appeal, Minister Champagne’s approval was the last opportunity for Canadians to have a say in the monumental telecommunications merger. The Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) released the following statement:
“Minister Champagne’s approval closes the book on the two year Rogers-Shaw saga, leaving Canadians with one less telecommunications provider and the future of wireless competition uncertain,” said Keldon Bester, CAMP co-founder. “Though the Minister’s commitments and penalties are a positive step, our laws have once again traded away actually existing competition for the promise of a new competitor, handpicked by a dominant incumbent. Canada must act quickly to reform our permissive approach to these harmful mergers to prevent this from ever happening again.”
CAMP’s submission to The Future of Competition Policy in Canada
The power of monopolies in Canada has exacerbated an ongoing cost of living crisis, enriched few at the expense of millions, and stifled innovation and creativity in our economy.
Canada needs a robust anti-monopoly law that meets the challenge posed by our economic environment, curbs the exercise of corporate power against Canadians and protects economic fairness. Reforming the Competition Act gives us the opportunity to change our current trajectory and foster an economy that works for all Canadians.
ISED’s consultation on the future of the Competition Act is an important milestone on the journey towards such an economy. In its submission to the consultation, CAMP outlines a program of reform that would allow policy makers to better protect Canadians and competition by:
- Emboldening the Competition Act’s Purpose Clause
- Introducing stronger rules to block and deter harmful mergers
- Revitalizing protections against corporations abusing their dominance
- Creating a strong and transparent enforcement framework
Read the full submission here.
Who's behind Canada's new pulp-and-paper powerhouse, and where's the money coming from?
CBC
“A few lines in business news last week marked the emergence of a new powerhouse in Canada’s forestry sector, as a company called Paper Excellence officially gobbled up Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products.”
Travelling soon? Get ready to pay higher cellphone roaming rates
CBC
“Two of Canada’s biggest telecom providers are raising the fees they charge customers when they use their devices outside of Canada.”
A new golden age for competition and antitrust is taking hold – and Canada can be part of it
In late 2022, an unusual scene unfolded in a New York courtroom: Author Stephen King, in an almost grandfatherly way, recounted a decades-ago lunch during which a publisher laughed at his proposed terms and walked out.
Does the publisher regret losing out on an early-career Mr. King?, the judge asked.
To laughter in the courtroom, Mr. King said the man “retired shortly thereafter.”
What had brought Mr. King to court that day was a big fight: The U.S. Department of Justice, which would go on to win, had sued to block the acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House, a megamerger that would have resulted in a giant with nearly 50 per cent of the market for top-selling books.
Mr. King’s testimony underscores what was at stake: Rejected rudely by a short-sighted publisher, Mr. King had gone on to have a successful career with a rival, in a marketplace teeming with individual book producers. But with a merged Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster dominating the market, that scenario would be less likely. In other words, competition within industries is important.
It’s a sentiment that has echoed far and wide in recent years. The case of the publishing merger was just one milestone in a growing global antitrust movement that has produced a sprawling lawsuit against Google’s alleged monopolization of digital ad technology, two continuing German investigations into Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace practices and new rules governing the conduct of major digital platforms in Europe.
In February, antitrust made it into the U.S. President’s State of the Union address for the first time since 1979.
Aimed at curbing the power of monopolies and empowering citizens, this movement could not have found a riper moment: a year of skyrocketing living costs, record corporate profits, the rolling onset of a housing crisis across many Western countries and, seemingly, everyone trying to buy each other, from Microsoft Corp. bidding for Activision Blizzard Inc., to a plethora of gold-mining deals and even proposed mergers between the big companies behind Korean pop stars.
Here in Canada, this antitrust movement might find its footing, too. It is, after all, what one would expect when 2022 was capped off with the Competition Tribunal’s approval of the merger of Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. in our oligopoly telecommunications market, and disastrous holiday travel conditions across what is, in effect, our duopoly air travel market.
Read the full publication here.
Industry committee delves into Rogers-Shaw merger as fate of deal rests with Minister Champagne
CBC
“Key players and close watchers of Rogers Communications Inc.’s proposed takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. shared their views on the $26-billion deal at a House of Commons committee Wednesday as Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne deliberates on its fate.”