Brussels, 23/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 22 January 2009, the European Commission confirmed that European Commission have carried out an unannounced inspection at the premises of Slovak Telekom a.s., the incumbent telecom operator in Slovakia. The Commission has reason to believe that the company may have infringed EC rules on abuse of a dominant market position in the form of refusal to supply, margin squeeze and tying, possibly as part of an overall strategy to exclude competitors from the market. A company that is both a wholesale supplier and a retrial distributor can squeeze its competitors' margin by using a tariffs as a 'lever,' raising wholesale prices for distributors in competition with its own distribution subsidiary while at the same time lowering the retail prices charged by its consumer distribution subsidiary. This makes it impossible for independent distributors to continue to offer competitive pricing while protecting their margins. Germany's incumbent telecom operator Deutsche Telekom was found guilty of such behaviour in April 2008 (see EUROPE 9640). (C.D. trans fl)