Bell Canada v. Copyright Collective of Canada, 2026 FCA 107
Justice Locke; Justice Walker; Justice Roussel - 2026-05-29
Read full decision. Automatically generated summary:
The applicants seek judicial review of a decision of the Copyright Board that was a second redetermination of a tariff of royalties payable by retransmitters, including the applicants, to the respondents for the retransmission of distant television signals in Canada for the years 2014-2018. ... The Settlement Date represents the date that amounts owing under the Tariff are due and after which interest thereon will accrue at a higher rate than before. In the Second Redetermination Decision, the Settlement Date was set at September 30, 2019, a date years in the past. The parties agree that it was inappropriate to select a date in the past because doing so was inconsistent with the Board’s past practice, including in respect of the Tariff, and the Board provided no explanation for selecting such a date. ... In other words, did the Board believe that it became functus officio on this issue in 2025 because it had released the Second Redetermination Decision, or in 2019 with the release of the Original Decision? Either way, it is appropriate for this Court to intervene. ... I would do the same with regard to the other transitional provisions. As with the issue of the Settlement Date, the Board refused to reconsider the other transitional provisions because it felt it lacked the power to do so. Regardless of the basis for the Board’s concern in this regard, it should not have felt so constrained. Moreover, I agree that the remedies sought in the notice of application are sufficiently broad to encompass the other transitional provisions.
Decision relates to:
- A-254-25 - BELL CANADA et al. v. COPYRIGHT COLLECTIVE OF CANADA et al.