Telecom Regulation & Competition Law in Canada: Sector Overview & Recent Developments, Slides of Competition Law and Policy

Download Telecom Regulation & Competition Law in Canada: Sector Overview & Recent Developments and more Slides Competition Law and Policy in PDF only on Docsity! Telecom Regulation and Competition Law in Canada 1 Docsity.com Overview • Overview of the Canadian telecom sector • Canadian regulatory environment • Recent developments 2 Docsity.com Regulatory Overview • Within the federal government, the Minister of Industry (Industry Canada) is responsible for: – Telecom policy and legislative initiatives involving the Telecommunications Act. – Regulation of spectrum management (under the Radiocommunications Act). – Policy/legislative initiatives involving the Broadcast Act are responsibility of the Minister of Canadian Heritage. • Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is the regulator responsible for the regulation of both the telecom and broadcast sectors. 5 Docsity.com Regulatory Overview (cont.) • Canadian antitrust legislation is the Competition Act. • Enforcement is the responsibility of Competition Bureau – an independent agency within Industry Canada, reporting to Parliament through the Minister of Industry. 6 Docsity.com Regulatory Overview (cont.) • Law of general application - applies to all sectors, including the telecommunications sector. • Contains both civil provisions (e.g., merger review, abuse of dominant position, refusal to deal, exclusive dealing, tied selling) and criminal prohibitions against anti-competitive conduct (e.g., conspiracy, bid rigging, predation, resale price maintenance). 7 Docsity.com Recent Developments in Canadian Telecom - Telecom Policy Review Panel • Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (TPRP) – Panel of three industry experts, appointed by the Minister of Industry, to review Canada’s telecommunications policy framework. – Final report March, 2006 -127 recommendations. • Underlying theme of the report: – “Canada's telecommunications markets have evolved to a point that justifies replacement of the current legislative presumption favouring regulation with one favouring reliance on market forces.” 10 Docsity.com Recent Developments in Canadian Telecom – Policy Direction to CRTC • S. 9 of the Telecom Act sets out 9 objectives for the Telecommunications Act. • Pursuant to theme of the TPRP recommendations, Minister of Industry issued a policy direction to the CRTC pursuant to S. 8 of the Telecom Act. • “rely on market forces to the maximum extent feasible and regulate, where there is still a need to do so, in a manner that interferes with market forces to the minimum extent necessary.” 11 Docsity.com Recent Developments in Canadian Telecom – CRTC Local Forbearance • CRTC regulatory proceeding to establish necessary conditions for forbearing from continued regulation in local telecom markets. • CRTC Decision 2006-15: established a market share loss threshold of 25% (and various quality of service requirements) for forbearance. • April 18, 2007 - Governor in Council Order varied the decision. • Market share loss test dropped in favour of one of two tests: alternative competitive presence test or competitive market analysis proposed by the Bureau. 12 Docsity.com Recent Developments in Canadian Telecom – CRTC Proceeding on Essential Facilities • CRTC PN 2006-14 – initiated a review of the regulatory framework for wholesale services and definition of essential service. • Bureau position: primary objective underlying the regulation of wholesale telecom services should be the development of competition between networks. • Effective competition is most likely to come from independent, facilities-based providers that control their own networks. 15 Docsity.com Recent Developments in Canadian Telecom – CRTC Proceeding on Essential Facilities • Bureau’s test for determining whether a facility is essential considers whether: – the firm controlling the facility is dominant in both the upstream (wholesale) market for the facility and the downstream (retail) market in which it is used as an input, and – assesses the competitive impact in the downstream market of mandating access to the facility. • Proceeding is ongoing - decision expected April, 2008. 16 Docsity.com