On Tuesday 25 January, the European Commission re-adopted a decision against Telefónica and Pharol (formerly Portugal Telecom) and decided to impose a fine of €66,894,000 on Telefónica and €12,146,000 on Pharol for entering into a non-compete agreement, in violation of EU rules.
In January 2013, the Commission fined Telefónica and Portugal Telecom for agreeing not to compete with each other on the Iberian telecommunications markets. This was in violation of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which prohibits anti-competitive agreements.
In June 2016, the General Court entirely upheld the Commission’s findings, but annulled the fines (see EUROPE 12495/30).
Today’s decision takes full account of the General Court’s judgment and excludes, after further assessment, those services from the value of sales for which insurmountable barriers to entry were found to exist and for which the parties were thus not in potential competition with each other during the period of application of the non-compete clause.
The decision again imposes fines on Telefónica and Pharol for entering into a non-compete agreement. The newly imposed fines use the same parameters as regards gravity, duration and aggravating and mitigating circumstances as in the 2013 Commission decision.
Link to the case: https://bit.ly/3fVK4w9 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)