Brussels, 01/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The regulation capping prices charged by telecommunications companies for roaming services complies with Community law, according to the opinion of the Advocate General delivered on Thursday 1 October. According to Poiares Maduro, that this market is cross-border is reason for Community intervention under Article 95 of the EC Treaty, the aim being to safeguard the proper functioning of the internal market (case (C-58/08).
The Advocate General noted that, before the regulation [(EC) N° 717/2007 of the Parliament and Council, in force since 1 July of this year], operators were making profits of more than 200% for calls made while roaming and of 30% or 400% for calls received. Wholesale prices and retail charges for using mobile telephones while travelling in another member state were inflated to such an extent that they constituted an obstacle to the operation of the internal market. It would be difficult, the Advocate General said, to find an economic activity in the mobile telecommunications sector that was more clearly cross-border than roaming.
Member states were not in a position to resolve this problem, he said, since they could not exert any influence on the princes charged by operators in other member states, and they were little inclined to monitor the charges their operators were imposing on foreigners. Thus, it fell to the Community legislator to bring in price caps, without infringing the principle of subsidiarity. Neither did the Community infringe the principle of proportionality, the Advocate General said, since the measures were for a limited period of three years and were subject to regular review.
The High Court of Justice of England and Wales, to which the operators Vodaphone, Telefonica O2, T-Mobile and Orange had referred the regulation, had sent questions to the European Court. If the Court agrees with the Advocate General's opinion, as happens in three quarters of cases, it will rule that the regulation is valid under the terms of Article 95 of the EC Treaty. (C.D.transl.rt)