Brussels, 18/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 July, the Commission closed the proceedings against Vodafone UK, O2 UK, Vodafone Germany and T-Mobile Germany with regard to roaming rates applied to other European mobile operators up to 2003. Jonathan Todd, the spokesperson for Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, told the press that the Commission was satisfied that the new European regulation, which entered into force on 30 June 2007, would resolve the problem of excessive roaming rates. (EUROPE 9454) In the light of this new legislation, he said, “we have decided that [pursuing the investigation] did not represent a good investment of taxpayers' money”. The Commission is not, however, in the habit of dropping cases against enterprises suspected of breaching competition legislation simply because the risk of re-offending is eliminated; especially since the spokesperson admitted that “the issue of whether these enterprises are guilty of abusing their dominant positions has not been resolved”. Certain sources are speculating that the Commission's retreat may indicate a lack of evidence on the part of DG Competition, which may have decided to withdraw from investing more resources in this investigation faced with the lack of certainty of a result in its favour. (cd)