Orange escapes Competition Council fine, but Vodafone still in hot water

Newsroom 14/06/2013 | 13:29

The Bucharest Court of Appeal has ruled that Orange Romania should not pay an EUR 35 million fine levied by the Competition Council at the end of 2011. However, the court has maintained the fine for Vodafone, which must pay approximately EUR 28 million.

The decision is not definitive and can be appealed against by Vodafone and the Competition Council within two weeks.

The two companies were accused in the same file. Thus, the Competition Council fined Orange and Vodafone Romania with a cumulated fine of EUR 63 million at the beginning of 2011 for abuse of dominant position in relation to the operator Netmaster.

Thus, Orange was fined with EUR 34.8 million and Vodafone with EUR 28.3 million on the grounds that the two operators did not allow Netmaster Communications access to their networks for finishing national and international calls transited by this operator.

Otilia Haraga