Quebecor Files Complaint to Competition Regulator Against Loblaw-Bell-Rogers Partnership

By Adriano Marchese

Quebecor said it has filed a complaint with Canada's competition watchdog over an agreement between grocer Loblaw and wireless carriers Rogers and Bell that would see it excluded from Loblaw-owned grocery stores.

The Canadian communications company said Wednesday that it filed the complaint with the Competition Bureau regarding an agreement between the Rogers and Bell joint venture, Glentel, and Loblaw, that would give them exclusive selling rights at The Mobile Shop located in Loblaw stores across the country.

Rogers and Bell are two of the four major wireless carriers in Canada, while Quebecor recently entered as the fourth national carrier when it acquired Freedom Mobile last year as part of the Rogers-Shaw Communications merger.

Quebecor claims that this new agreement would shut its mobile carrier service, Freedom Mobile, out of the Loblaw-owned grocery stores.

The company said that 49.5% of third-party retailers are controlled by at least one member of the major telecommunications companies, and that if the JV Glentel manages to receive the rights of the 180 The Mobile Shop outlets, this percentage would rise to 62.5%.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 12, 2024 09:12 ET (13:12 GMT)

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