Despite legal costs awarded to Rogers-Shaw, the competition commissioner’s challenge to the telecom merger was not a waste of taxpayer money

The Competition Bureau has been ordered to pay $13 million to Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications by the Competition Tribunal. (Shutterstock)

Months after rejecting the Commissioner of Competition’s application to challenge the merger between Rogers and Shaw Communications, the Competition Tribunal ordered the commissioner to pay nearly $13 million in costs to Rogers and Shaw.

On Aug. 28, the tribunal ruled that the commissioner’s approach to block the merger was “unreasonable,” although the Competition Bureau stands by its decision to challenge it.