Postmedia: A look at CRTC Chair Von Finckenstein

By Sarah Schmidt for PostMedia News

OTTAWA — When Konrad von Finckenstein was appointed chairman of the CRTC in January 2007, news reports at the time hinted that broadcast and telecom executives could be in for a rough ride.

Pegged as “pro-consumer” because of his time as a commissioner of the Competition Bureau, von Finckenstein certainly had experience taking on corporate Canada prior to his judicial appointment to the Federal Court in 2003.

Under von Finckenstein’s direction, the Competition Bureau — charged with protecting consumers and industry from unfair business practices — blocked some takeovers and overruled a decision of the CRTC when it allowed Astral Media Inc., to buy several radio stations in Quebec.

Credited for recognizing the importance of taking on cartels as a way to protect Canadian consumers, the bureau under von Finckenstein’s leadership obtained more than 50 convictions and collected almost $170 million in fines. The bureau also overhauled its amnesty program to increase the detection of cartels.

Von Finckenstein’s work “did not go unnoticed” when he provided international leadership in “combating hard-core cartels,” a colleague in the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust division gushed about him in a speech following von Finckenstein’s federal judicial appointment in 2003.

Despite glowing praise about his time at the Competition Bureau and early pronouncements about what to expect at the helm of the CRTC, the reviews of von Finckenstein’s tenure as CRTC chairman, which ends in January 2012, haven’t been as favourable. Read more »

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