Brussels, 02/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has announced that it is to reconsider the obligations and conditions contained in its 29 October 1997 decision on the creation of Unisource, a strategic alliance in the field of telecommunications between the operators of the Netherlands (KNP), Sweden (Telia AB) and Switzerland (Swisscom AG), given a certain number of irreversible decisions meanwhile taken by Unisource shareholders, which substantially alter the activities as initially notified in 1995. This decision follows the introduction by the parties of a request for a review of the Community executive's decision of 29 October 1997 (See OJ L318 of 20.11.1997) granting an individual exemption regarding the creation of Unisource and the individual restrictions set out in the contractual clauses applicable to this operation.
The parties consider that, under the effects of developments in the telecommunications market over the past few years and due to accumulated losses over the same period, they have had to give up on Unisource as joint-venture responsible for implementing their international expansion strategy. Consequently, they have reduced the field of application of Unisource's activities to a bare minimum, i.e. the provision of value-added telecommunication services to multinational companies, activity that is exercised through AUCS vof (formerly "Uniworld"). The latter will thus remain the only subsidiary held by Unisource. Its management has so far been assured by Infonet, a company in which Unisource's three shareholders have a 56% stake. This disengagement means that all the non-compe clauses set out in the original agreements have disappeared, no competition agreement linking AUCS and the parent companies. KPN, Swisscom and Telia may thus enter into competition with Unisource on the telecommunications services market. Examining the competitive situation on the market, the Commission considered that AUCS/Infonet would hold a market share in the sector of between 4% and 11%. In addition, the parent companies are free to enter into direct competition with Unisource to provide these services.
In their request for a review, the parties observe that, contrary to the situation as it was when the Commission decided to exempt the creation of Unisource, the telecommunications markets have been fully liberalised within the EU and each Member state has set up a national regulatory authority with wide-ranging powers to intervene on these markets. The Commission thus considers that the conditions have substantially altered compared to the time when it granted the exemption; it is considering providing a favourable answer to the request of the parties and, before deciding, invites third parties interested to forward their comments within a month of the date of publication of the present communication (OJ C 217 of 29 July 2000).