Abuse of dominant position of Eurotel and RadioMobil
The above-mentioned companies operate on the market of provision of mobile radiotelephony services in public mobile telecommunication networks.
The Office decided in two individual administrative proceedings that the above mentioned companies had abused their dominant position by their action in 2000 and 2001 by invoicing their customers for a minute call to the network of the company Český Mobil, a.s., an amount higher than the amount mutually invoiced for a minute call between their respective networks.
By the above-mentioned action the parties to the proceeding had breached the Act on the Protection of Competition to the prejudice of the company Český Mobil, which, due to higher prices invoiced by companies Eurotel Praha and Radiomobil to their customers for calls to the network of the company Český Mobil, did not acquire such a number of new customers as it would under the conditions of fair competition. These higher prices caused a decrease in the volume of out-coming operation from the networks operated by the parties to the proceeding to the network of company Český Mobil, in comparison with the operation in the opposite direction, thereby disadvantaging company Český Mobil in competition. Establishment of the higher prices for calls to the network of company Český Mobil accordingly discouraged potential customers from using services of this company. In case that a potential customer of mobile phone services of the company Český Mobil had found while considering her choice that the calls coming to her from majority of mobile phone owners would be more expensive, it was absolutely logical for her from the view of consumer behaviour to choose an operator already established on the market.
The behaviour of the parties to the proceeding may be qualified as very characteristic for undertakings in dominant position in situation, when a new competitor enters the market to compete with them. Moreover, especially in the initial phase of the entry of the new competitor on the market, the undertaking in the dominant position actually did not run any risk of its own disadvantage by setting higher prices for the calls to the network of the new operator, forasmuch the number of calls from the network of the parties to the proceeding to the new network was low.
The action of the parties to the proceeding caused also prejudice to the consumers – customers of the parties to the proceeding, who had paid for comparable services in calls to the network of the company Český Mobil in some tariffs an amount higher than for calls to the network of the second party to the proceeding.
When stipulating the amount of the fine, the Office in both cases took into account the fact that each of the parties to the proceeding had remedied partially its behaviour following the initiation of the administrative proceedings.
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