Commissioner of Competition files motion to push Rogers/Shaw hearing dates

The Competition Bureau wants the Competition Tribunal to add more time to the pre-hearing process over the merger of Rogers and Shaw.

A motion filed by the Commissioner of Competition on July 22nd says the date change is because of Vidéotron’s request to participate in the process.

The commissioner says that since the schedule was shared on June 17th, Rogers and Shaw announced Vidéotron would be the company to take over Freedom Mobile when the merger is approved. Vidéotron, which functions under Québecor, also applied to take part in proceedings earlier this month. The company said it’s “directly affected by the Competition Tribunal’s determination of the sufficiency of the divestiture.”

The original schedule stated that pre-hearing discussions would take place between August 15th. The commissioner now wants this date to move to September 19th and extend oral examinations by one week.

The commissioner says it now has to receive documents from Vidéotron, review the material and take part in examinations to understand the elements of the case.

“The additional steps were not accounted for in the scheduling order given that it was only after the scheduling order had been discussed in case management that the proposed divestiture was disclosed to the public and to the Commissioner,” the motion reads.

The commissioner filed to block the merger in May, citing a lack of affordability, among other factors.

Source: Compeition Tribunal