Orange and Vodafone get EUR 63 million fine for aa‚¬A“abuse of dominant positionaa‚¬A, contest decision

Telecom operators Orange and Vodafone received a EUR 63 million fine for “abuse of dominant position,” the Competition Council has announced. “The decision was adopted February 14 in a Competition Council meeting. Orange was fined with over EUR 34 million, and Vodafone with over EUR 28 million, which is a little over 3 percent of the operators 2010 turnover,” said Bogdan Chiritoiu, the president of the competition body quoted by Mediafax. He added that the two companies are entitled to contest the fine in court.

The investigation leading to the fine started in 2006, following a complaint by Netmaster Communications, and looked at an alleged abuse of dominant position by Orange, Vodafone and Romtelecom concerning the service for ending calls (mobile or landline) in their own networks.

Netmaster alleged that a part of the international calls of its clients had been blocked by Orange, Vodafone and Romtelecom. “Orange and Vodafine charged Netmaster an interconnection tariff of USD 0.15- 0.18 per minute, compared to a maximum imposed by the regulating authority of USD 0.10 per minute,” Chiritoiu said.

According to 2006 data, the telecom operators blocked the calls following suspicions of fraud from alternative operators. These companies were suspected that they were changing the identity of calls finished in the Orange, Vodafone, and Romtelecom networks.

The investigation in the Romtelecom case is nearing the end, and a decision there is expected soon. See the official stand of Vodafone Romania and Orange Romania:

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The official position of Orange Romania:

 “The decision announced today by the Competition Council refers to an investigation started in 2006 regarding a possible violation of the competition law by Orange Romania, Vodafone Romania and Romtelecom.

The investigation concerns the terms and conditions agreed upon among telecom operators for finishing international calls in Romania.

We want to emphasize the fact that the object of the investigation is not the relation between Orange Romania and the clients of mobile telephony in Romania.

 We are deeply surprised with this decision that we consider unfounded since it is based on an erroneous interpretation of the facts in the file. Thus, the applied penalty is unjustified and Orange Romania will contest this decision in court.

 Orange Romania has always led its activity on the market in full compliance with the legislation in force and competition laws.

 Orange Romania will abstain from any further comments until the motivation for this decision is communicated.”

The official position of Vodafone Romania

 “We are surprised and disappointed with the decision announced by the Competition Council in the investigation regarding the abuse of dominant position concerning the operator Netmaster Communications. Vodafone Romania considers it has done nothing to impend the access of Netmaster Communications to its network, with a view to carrying out traffic of international calls, which we pointed out also during the investigation. Vodafone Romania will contest the decision of the Competition Council in court.

 During the period under investigation, Netmaster Communications carried out international voice traffic via an interconnection agreement it had signed previously with Vodafone Romania. The absence of a specific contract for international voice traffic is due to the Netmaster denial to accept the same contractual terms offered to the other operators, Netmaster asking for preferential treatment at the time.”