The Competition Authority (AdC) has defined the electronic communications sector as one of the priorities for action for this year, namely with regard to the provision of services triple play, which include fixed telephony, subscription television and broadband Internet access.
According to the regulator, there is an increase in the demand for communication services in Portugal together, and less and less individually. «According to the analyzes of the AdC, the triple play service packages constitute a relevant market for the purposes of competition policy and will be treated as such in the context of the proceedings under investigation,» said the President of the AdC at a meeting this Friday. organized by Jornal de Negócios.
Manuel Sebastião also guaranteed that PT’s lawsuit on abuse of a dominant position in the conducts «contrary to what was reported, has not yet seen its end».
The official promises to return to the matter, after the Court of Appeal has annulled the fine imposed on PT by the AdC of 38 million euros.
The fine had resulted from a process analyzed by the Competition Authority between 2003 (date of complaints) and 2007 (date of decision), following complaints filed by competitors of the operator.
The AdC concluded that PT had used its dominant position to hinder competitors’ access to conduits and punished the company with the heaviest fine in the sector’s history, in Portugal.
The Court of Commerce, for its part, considered that the monopolistic practices were not proven, canceling the payment of the fine of 38 million euros. The AdC appealed, but the Relação ended up confirming the sentence.
Editorial Note: The news was corrected to remove a reference that, by mistake, had been stuck to the last paragraph.
