Broadcaster
Almost exactly one year after the release of the Copyright Board's decision on the SOCAN-NRCC Radio Tariff 2003-2007, the Federal Court of Appeal has granted the CAB's application for judicial review of the decision, and set it aside. The Board's decision had increased payments by private radio stations by up to 30%, a result the radio industry believed to be unjustified and profoundly unfair. The collectives may bring an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court within 60 days.
Having considered the parties' detailed written submissions and oral argument at a hearing held only last week, the Court agreed with the CAB's core argument that the Board's reasons justifying increases to the tariff rates were inadequate and justified the intervention of the Court.
"This decision is a significant victory for Canada's private radio broadcasters," said CAB President and CEO Glenn O'Farrell. "The Court has clearly concurred with the CAB's assertion that the Copyright Board did not provide sufficient justification for these historic rate increases."
As the CAB had requested, the Court has ordered the Board to reevaluate key components of its rationale for the rate change, with the possibility for the CAB and the collectives to supplement the existing record with new evidence and submissions. Again as the CAB requested, a differently constituted panel will re-hear this matter, meaning that two of the three panel members – Board Chairman Mr. Justice Vancise, and Member Bertrand-Venne – will be "new" to the re-hearing.
Over the course of the last twelve months, the Radio Board, Radio Copyright Committee, and Radio Government Affairs Committee worked to develop the judicial review strategy, with the advice of outside counsel John Laskin and Andrew Bernstein of Torys LLP in Toronto. While courts tend to show considerable deference to Copyright Board decisions, in this instance Radio Members and outside counsel considered that the CAB had good arguments that the Board not justified its approach to setting the SOCAN-NRCC Tariff.
"The work in this case was truly a team effort, and the CAB thanks the Radio Board, the Radio Copyright Committee and Radio Government Affairs Committee for the time and effort they invested to support this initiative," said O'Farrell. "I would also like to thank Margot Patterson, the CAB's Vice-President of Legal Affairs for her demonstrated leadership on this case." |