Grocery giant Loblaws is under fire over a deal with Glentel, owned by Rogers and Bell, that would see Freedom Mobile and other wireless providers pushed out of kiosks in Loblaws-owned stores.
Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau sent a letter to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne earlier in May calling for an intervention in the deal. Quebecor acquired Freedom Mobile as part of the Rogers-Shaw merger last year.
Loblaws-owned supermarkets feature kiosks branded as ‘The Mobile Shop’ that sell wireless services, including Loblaws’ own PC Mobile brand, which operates on Bell’s network. Notably, The Mobile Shop website doesn’t mention No Name Mobile, the latest Bell-operated Loblaws wireless offering.
The Mobile Shop does advertise on its ‘About’ page that it doesn’t work “for any one carrier, so we’ll never play favourites.”
According to Péladeau’s letter, obtained by CBC News, Loblaws decided to “prematurely end” Quebecor’s contract for wireless devices and services at The Mobile Shop. Péladeau called the move anti-competitive and wrote that The Mobile Shop would soon sell only Glentel products.
Péladeau said the move was “a joint venture made up of the giants” and that it would lock out competition.
Champagne responded to Péladeau on Wednesday, saying the issue was a matter for the Competition Bureau.
CBC News reports that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the government recently changed the Competition Act to give the bureau more legal powers in response to questions about the deal between Loblaws and Glentel.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also called on the Competition Bureau to investigate the deal.
“Based on our limited market presence in mobile, our decision of which carrier to sell does absolutely nothing to competition,” The Mobile Shop told CBC News in a statement. It also said that its business represents “less than five percent of sales in mobile phones and plans in Canada.”
It’s worth noting that Loblaws is facing an ongoing boycott from Canadians over high grocery prices. Loblaws reported $13.58 billion in revenue in Q1 2024.
Header image credit: Shutterstock
Source: CBC News
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