OTTAWA – Saying he can’t see how Bell Mobility will suffer irreparable harm due to CRTC Broadcasting and Telecom Decision 2015-26 (which ordered Bell and Quebecor’s Vidéotron to cease providing mobile video applications that are exempt from counting toward the cap on their wireless data plans) Federal Court of Appeal judge Denis Pelletier dismissed Bell’s request for an immediate stay of the Commission decision.
(This decision to dismiss the stay request does not, however, affect Bell’s overall appeal of the CRTC decision, and a decision on whether to hear it is still pending from the court.)
“Bell does not identify the mechanism by which its market share will be affected if the CRTC’s decision is not stayed, beyond saying that it will not be able to use its current pricing model as a differentiating factor… Since the decision applies to Bell’s competitors as well as to Bell, the coming into effect of the Decision should be neutral from the perspective of competition. All would be similarly affected,” wrote Pelletier.
The court noted that Bell’s competitors do not offer video in this way any more (if they ever had in the first place).
“There is no evidence before me that any other Bell competitor offers a mobile television application for time-based fees. Bell would therefore be the sole remaining provider of this service if the CRTC decision were to be stayed,” reads the decision. “This is the opposite of irreparable harm in that granting the stay would confer a competitive advantage on Bell by allowing it to continue to offer a product on a basis which its competitors have ceased to offer as a result of proceedings before the CRTC. This cannot constitute irreparable harm.”
