Overview

• Justice Peter Osborne found that Ottawa induced Quadrangle Group LLC and Obelysk Media Inc. to invest $243 million in 2008 under five-year resale assurances before changing the rules in 2013.
• The 2013 retroactive ban on selling Mobilicity’s spectrum licences to incumbents immediately devalued investors’ assets and breached the government’s duty of care.
• Industry Canada improperly intervened in Mobilicity’s sale by threatening to exclude Telus from future spectrum actions and delaying licence approvals to secure Rogers’s 2015 acquisition.
• Investors have calculated their recoverable losses at more than $500 million, including prejudgment interest, and will receive reimbursement under the court order.
• The federal government has said it will review the ruling and is expected to appeal the decision.