Allarco ordered to pay retailers’ court fees after dropping piracy lawsuit

After dropping its lawsuit in Federal Court against four retailers whose employees it accused of recommending pirating content from media boxes sold in stores -- and subsequently launching a similar proceeding in the Alberta courts -- Allarco Entertainment 2008 Inc.’s Super Channel must now pay the legal costs of the retailers it sued. The costs, a Federal Court judge has declared, are a "sanction" for having wasted the court's time. According to a decision issued on Wednesday, May 13, Allarco filed its motion in Alberta just two days after a case management conference in Federal Court in early December, and did not inform the plaintiffs -- the retailers -- of the new action until the following week. In a decision issued on Wednesday, May 13, judge Angela Furlanetto ruled that Allarco must pay a combined $59,416.87 to the four companies; $19,700.28 to Staples Canada, $19,978.50 to Best Buy Canada, $2,066.93 to Canada Computers, and $17,671.16 to London Drugs. The Federal Court case was dismissed in late January, and Allarco had requested an adjournment of an application for costs from the four retailers, who initially sought a cumulative total of $527,156.70. That request was denied by Judge Furlanetto, who Wednesday decided to award a reduced amount of the requested costs to the defendants. "While it is clear that a significant amount of work went into these materials and that there was much correspondence between the parties leading up to the motion, I consider the amounts claimed for the motion to be excessive," Furlanetto wrote. "From my review of the motion materials filed and the supporting materials, the amounts claimed must be reduced to a more reasonable amount." Detailing Allarco's submission of some 70 hours of audio-video evidence, Furlanetto writes that she agrees with the claim of the defendants -- that the submission was done "strategically and vexatiously with the effect of needlessly increasing the Defendants costs." "Indeed, it is clear from the timing of the claim in the Alberta Action that the Plaintiff knew it would be initiating the Alberta Action during the case management conference" in December, Furlanetto wrote, "yet it chose not to mention the new proceeding to the Defendants or to the Court. It has offered no explanation as to why it did not do so as it could have saved the Defendants considerable time and expense as well as the time of the Court." Allarco's Super Channel posted a video of an undercover investigation to its “change the culture” website last year that shows employees from major retail stores telling customers that the un-named media boxes would allow them access to “free” TV and movies. In November, Allarco was called before a CRTC hearing, where its executives were asked to account for shortcomings on its Canadian programming expenditures in a three-day license renewal hearing.

Allarco ordered to pay retailers’ court fees after dropping piracy lawsuit

Brief | May 15, 2020

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Allarco ordered to pay retailers’ court fees after dropping piracy lawsuit

Brief | May 15, 2020

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