Rogers and Shaw applications are pictured on a cellphone in Ottawa on May 9, 2022. The Competition Tribunal will hear oral arguments today in a case meant to decide whether the $26-billion merger of Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. will be blocked. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – The Competition Tribunal is expected to hear closing arguments today in a case meant to decide whether the $26-billion merger of Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. will be blocked.
The oral arguments are expected to be the hearing’s final step before Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton mulls the testimony he has heard over the last month and releases a decision.
The matter wound up before Crampton after Rogers announced its intention to buy Shaw in March 2021 and the Competition Bureau decided the deal’s approval would result in increased cellphone bills and poorer service.
To ease the bureau’s concerns, Rogers and Shaw said Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron Ltd. would buy Shaw’s Freedom Mobile for $2.85 billion, but the federal watchdog still wasn’t satisfied.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved the deal in March, while Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said he would only endorse it if Videotron agrees to keep Freedom’s wireless licences for at least 10 years and wireless prices in Ontario and Western Canada were lowered by about 20 per cent.
Shaw’s chief financial officer Trevor Shaw has said he doesn’t see another viable way forward for his company if the deal is not approved.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2022.
Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI, TSX:SJR)
