Rogers-Shaw deal example of 'weak laws that should be stopping these mergers': experts

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the federal government will allow Rogers to acquire Shaw, but experts say this raises questions about the strength of Canada’s competition laws.

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Friday, Keldon Bester, co-founder of think tank Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, said while it’s good that Rogers will now face fines of as much as $1 billion if they break the conditions of the deal, this is a negative sign for competition in Canada.

“I think that the conditions and the financial penalties associated with them [breaking the deal conditions] is a positive step but unfortunately, that reflects the reality of the transaction that I think a lot of Canadians are familiar with, is that competition is actually going down and we've traded away existing players for the hope that that competition can be replaced,” Bester said.

“So as a result we need these conditions, to even have a chance for things to either stay the same or potentially improve. So while I welcome the Minister [Champagne], beefing up the commitments from his October statement last year, I think it really is a product of the weak laws that shouldn't be stopping these mergers in the first place.”