08:50 AM EDT, 06/12/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Quebecor (QBR-B.TO) on Wednesday said it is filing a complaint with Canada's Competition Bureau against the Glentel joint-venture owned by BCE (BCE.TO) and Rogers Communications (RCI-B.TO), as it claims they are excluding Quebecor's Freedom Mobile wireless unit from sales at The Mobile Shop kiosks in Loblaw (L.TO) grocery stores, which it says will "further strengthen the stranglehold of the telecom oligopoly".

The company said freezing Freedom Mobile out of potential sales to customers at 180 Loblaw-owned grocery stores gives Bell and Rogers control of 63% of third-party retailers, further concentrating the Canadian wireless industry already dominated by the two companies and Telus ( TU ) .

"The agreement between Loblaw and Glentel cloaks yet another attempt by the dominant players in the telecommunications market to thwart competition," Pierre Karl Peladeau, Quebecor's chief executive, said in a release. "To our knowledge, there is no other oligopoly where two of the three main players are allowed to work hand in hand to exclude competitors from such an important retail channel. This new squeeze by Loblaw, a company currently under investigation by the Competition Bureau for anti-competitive tactics in the grocery industry, is a major cause for concern."

Quebecor's Class B shares closed up $0.30 to $29.33 Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.