Canada’s merger court has ordered the Commissioner of Competition to pay Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. millions of dollars of costs related to the commissioner’s unsuccessful attempt to block the telecoms’ $20-billion deal.
Additionally, the tribunal has awarded legal fees of $414,720 to Rogers and $416,187 to Shaw, which has since been absorbed by Rogers. According to the tribunal’s decision, signed by Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton, Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell “adopted an unnecessarily contentious approach at numerous points during the litigation” and was “intransigent” in refusing to focus on the divestiture of Shaw’s wireless carrier, Freedom Mobile, to Quebecor Inc.Videotron Ltd. subsidiary for $2.
The tribunal said on Tuesday that the amounts it has awarded to the telecoms are “very substantial” for a public body and that the merger court is “mindful that the public interest may suffer if the level of costs awarded against the Commissioner were to begin to reach the point at which they have a chilling effect on his willingness to bring responsible cases that are in the public interest.”