Rogers compensated for “reasonable costs” in ISP case

The landmark ISP case Rogers Communications Inc. v. Voltage Pictures, LLC, et al., has taken another step after the Federal Court awarded costs to Rogers for providing the information Voltage was seeking. Partner Andrew Bernstein was lead counsel acting for Rogers and spoke to The Lawyer’s Daily regarding this next step.

The Supreme Court of Canada previously ruled that internet service providers are entitled to be reimbursed for their time spent sourcing information on customers’ internet usage. Rogers was awarded these costs, a number much higher than anticipated.

Andrew told The Lawyer’s Daily the company “believes the amount that it was asking for reflects the actual cost associated with doing the work that Voltage has asked it to do.”

“Considering Voltage’s position throughout was that Rogers was entitled to nothing, or very little, I was pleased to see the court didn’t agree and [gave] Rogers a decent amount of compensation,” Andrew said.

“It is certainly a better result than what Voltage was asking for.

“I think from a principled basis, the decision on what an ISP is entitled to be compensated for is quite useful, but in terms of the actual specific number probably not that precedential for other ISPs.”

You can learn more about our Litigation and Dispute Resolution and Appeals practices on the relevant practice pages.