Competition concerns on the Czech telecommunications market
Written By
Partner
Czech Republic
I enjoy working with innovative, creative and technology-rich businesses. Having joined our firm in 2009, I head up our Intellectual Property and Tech & Comms Groups in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
According to the Commission's preliminary assessment, the network sharing agreements (“NSAs”) between T-Mobile CZ, O2 CZ, and Czech telecom infrastructure provider CETIN, as well as the Mobile Network Services Agreement (“MNSA”) between O2 CZ and CETIN may restrict competition in violation of Article 101(1) TFEU. In particular, NSAs and the MNSA might, according to the Commission, reduce the ability and incentives of T-Mobile CZ, CETIN and O2 CZ to unilaterally invest in network infrastructure and therefore may negatively affect the ability and incentives of T-Mobile CZ and O2 CZ to compete on the retail and wholesale markets for mobile telecommunications services in the Czech Republic.
To address the Commission’s competition concerns, the competitors offered (i) to modernise the mobile network, (ii) to set and review the financial conditions for unilateral network deployments, (iii) to improve the NSAs contractual provisions to limit information exchange and (iv) impalement measures to the MNSA to prevent information spill-over between the companies.
The Commission invited all interested parties to submit their views on the proposed commitments until 1 November 2021 and now it will take a final view as to whether the commitments sufficiently address competition concerns. If this is the case, the Commission may adopt a decision making the proposed commitments legally binding on the parties. The Commission will not conclude if there is an infringement of EU antitrust rules. However, parties' compliance with the commitments will be monitored by an independent trustee appointed by the Commission. If any company breaks the commitments, the Commission can impose a fine of up to 10% of the company's worldwide turnover, without having to prove an infringement of the EU antitrust rules. The official communication from the Commission is available here and the full version of commitments here.
For more information contact Vojtěch Chloupek and Jiří Švejda.
