CHATHAM, Ont. – Independent ISP TekSavvy Solutions has asked the Competition Bureau to investigate what it says is a pattern of anti-competitive activities in wholesale and retail markets for Internet services on the part of Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.
The official complaint to the Bureau says Bell and Rogers’ wholesale divisions drove up competitors’ costs, while the big incumbent operators’ retail divisions targeted those competitors with “fighting brand” retail prices below their wholesale costs – which Bell and Rogers wrongfully inflated, reads the TekSavvy press release.
The complaint says that Bell and Rogers’ “wholesale rate manipulation resulted in higher retail prices for Internet services in Canada’s largest markets – costing millions of Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The complaint shows the Bureau that the CRTC determined that Bell and Rogers deviated from its wholesale rate-setting rules 56 times between 2016 and 2019, “systematically inflating rates for retail competitors of Bell and Rogers – in some cases by over 900%,” reads the TekSavvy announcement.
“Despite the CRTC’s ‘very disturbing’ findings of fact, which Bell and Rogers do not contest, and the CRTC’s 2019 order requiring Bell and Rogers’ to correct their inflated rates and return amounts unjustly extracted from their competitors, Bell and Rogers have obtained a stay of the decision, and petitioned the federal cabinet to overturn it,” adds the release.
“These companies must be held accountable for their anti-competitive activities” said Andy Kaplan-Myrth, TekSavvy VP regulatory and carrier affairs, in that release. “Cabinet should not only reject their petitions, but take action to bring down Internet prices while the CRTC opens up the mobile sector to competition too.”
“These kind of anti-competitive activities are the reason why Canadians pay among the very highest prices for internet and mobile services in the world” added Janet Lo, VP consumer legal affairs. “Cabinet should not only reject the petitions immediately but do everything in its power to see its policy goals met: Deliver lower Internet and cell phone bills and protect consumer interests.”
