Orange and Vodafone win suspension in Competition Council fine case

Newsroom 10/06/2011 | 18:38

Orange and Vodafone won in court a suspension of the execution of the Competition Council decision which stipulated that the two companies would be fined with EUR 34.8 million and EUR 28.3 million, respectively, for abuse of dominant position.

According to the law, the court can make such a decision only on condition a bail representing 30 percent of the total fine is paid. Orange and Vodafone had to pay together EUR 18.9 million, according to Hotnews.

On February 15, the Competition Council announced that it decided to fine Orange and Vodafone with a total sum of EUR 63.1 million for abuse of dominant position following a complaint made by Netmaster, an alternative supplier of landline telephony services.

The Competition Council levied the fine on the grounds that the two operators did not allow Netmaster access to their networks for finishing national and international calls transited by this operator.

Netmaster had asked interconnection at the tariff stipulated by the telecom regulator on the Romanian market, which was smaller than tariffs practiced by Orange and Vodafone.

The investigation of the Competition Council also targets a possible abuse from Romtelecom also for denying Netmaster access to its network. The investigation in the Romtelecom case is pending completion.

Otilia Haraga