Telenor must pay 906 million for abuse of its dominant position – TV 2

the Competition authority alerts, therefore, that Telenor may have to pay 906 million in fees for breach of konkurranselovens prohibition against abuse of a dominant position.

In a press release about the matter that was announced on Wednesday, ” says konkurransedirektøren that the matter is of great importance.

This case has significance for all who use a mobile phone in Norway. Our preliminary assessment is that Telenor has abused its dominant position by putting obstacles in the way for the establishment of a competitive third mobile network, ” says konkurransedirektør Lars Sørgard.

In Norway we only have two nationwide mobile networks, and they belong to Telenor and Telia.

the Competition authority believes that Telenor has abused its dominant position in the period 2010-2014 in two ways, so that the creation of a third network is complicated.

– Reduced the profitability of competing online

From 2007 built Network Norway, a third mobile network in Norway together with Tele2. In the period, Telenor is obliged to provide these actors access to their networks in the areas where the third web was not finished developed.

The first abuse applies to Telenor’s general terms and conditions for providing Network Norway with access to Telenor’s network in the period in which the third web was built out. These conditions reduced the profitability of the development of the third web, ” says Sørgard.

The second way, the Norwegian Competition authority believes that Telenor has abused his position by having entered into exclusive agreements.

– The second abuse is that Telenor has entered into exclusive agreements with four mobile operators and in this way limited the third cellular network opportunities to acquire customers, ” says Sørgard.

Telenor: Surprised and disagree

the Alert gives the expression of a preliminary opinion from the Competition authority, as we shall carefully go through before we consider how we should respond to the alert, ” says Berit Svendsen, ceo of Telenor Norway.

Telenor are not in agreement in that the company has done something that could be affected by unfair competition laws.

Telenor is surprised by the alert, because the Asker and Bærum district court in 2012 took the position for the same type of appointment, and concluded that dobbeltroamingforbudet was legal according to competition rules, ” says Svendsen.

Notification is not finally adopted and Telenor are due to 1. march 2017 with the submission of notices to notice.