Why the Antitrust reduces fines to Tim, Vodafone, WindTre and Fastweb
After the ruling by the Council of State, the Antitrust reformulated the fines to Tim, Vodafone, WindTre and Fastweb for the issue of 28-day billing. For the four companies, sanctions reduced to a total of 202 million euros from the 228 million euros determined in 2020 for agreements and abuse of a dominant position
Fines reduced from 228 million to 202 million euros for telephone companies over the issue of 28-day billing.
The Antitrust has remodulated the sanctions imposed on Tim, Vodafone, WindTre and Fastweb for anti-competitive agreements relating to the repricing carried out in the return to monthly billing, after the ruling of the Council of State.
This is what emerges from the Agcm's weekly bulletin . The new sanction comes at the conclusion of the procedure relating to "monthly billing with tariff remodulation", with which the Authority ascertained that Fastweb, Tim, Vodafone and WindTre "have put in place a secret, unique, complex and continuous restrictive agreement of competition".
The aim, continues the authority, was "to maintain the existing price level and to hinder the mobility of the respective customer bases – reports the Agcm bulletin – preventing the correct development of the competitive dynamics between operators in the markets of fixed telephony services and of mobile telephony".
The facts examined by the judges and reconstructed in the sentences were complex. The beginning is in 2015, when Tim, Vodafone, WindTre and Fastweb changed the renewal and billing period of rechargeable offers for mobile telephony, bringing it from a monthly to a four-weekly basis.
After a long judicial process, this summer the Council of State ascertained the infringement detected by the Authority, but, in partial acceptance of the companies' appeals, annulled the provision limited to the sanction imposed.
Therefore the fines are determined as follows: for Fastweb at 12,690,375 euros, for Tim at 100,670,526 euros, for Vodafone at 52,773,909.10 euros and for WindTre at 36,375,500 euros
All the details.
WHAT THE ANTITRUST HAD ESTABLISHED IN 2020
According to what was ascertained by the Antitrust, the four telephone companies had "coordinated their commercial strategies relating to the transition fromfour-weekly (28 days) to monthly billing , with the maintenance of the percentage increase of 8.6%", explained the Authority chaired by Roberto Rustichelli in 2020.
The effects of the four-way agreement, or "the cartel", as defined by the Antitrust, however, were not fully applied, thanks to the timely intervention of the Authority, which imposed, from the beginning of the procedure in March 2018 , of the precautionary measures that blocked the tariff increases.
THE ROLE OF AGCOM
Agcom intervened with resolution 121/17/CONS of 15 March 2017, establishing that the time unit for the renewal frequency and for the invoicing of fixed network contracts should be the month and that, for mobile telephony, not could be less than 28 days.
WHAT HAD FASTWEB, TIM, VODAFONE AND WINDTRE DECIDED REGARDING ANTITRUST FINES
However, the operators did not comply with the requirements and turned to the TAR.
The failure to adapt to the monthly invoicing method, however, led to the initiation of sanctioning proceedings, and subsequently the Authority initiated an investigative procedure to ascertain the existence of an agreement restricting competition. A precautionary measure was adopted to order Tim, Vodafone, WindTre and Fastweb to suspend, pending the proceedings, the implementation of the agreement.
FINANCIAL SANCTIONS INflicted by the ANTITRUST
Furthermore, the confirmation of the provisional precautionary measure was followed by the sanctioning measure adopted in January 2020 by the Antitrust: 14,756,250 euros to Fastweb; 114,398,325 euros to Telecom; 59,970,351 euros to Vodafone and 38,973,750 euros to Wind) contested before the TAR.
THE JUDICIAL INTERVENTION BETWEEN TAR…
In July 2021, the TAR canceled the overall fine of 228 million euros to Fastweb, Tim, Vodafone and WindTre for 28-day billing. With four sentences the Lazio Regional Administrative Court had accepted the appeals brought by the telephone companies to contest the provision with which on 11 April 2018 the Authority confirmed the provisional precautionary measures adopted the month before, leading to the provision of 28 January 2020 with which the restrictive agreement was ascertained and the sanctions were imposed.
… AND COUNCIL OF STATE
After that, on 25 July 2023, with sentence no. 7270, the Council of State accepted the AGCM's appeal. In reform of the Lazio TAR ruling of 12 July 2021, n. 8236, the Council of State confirmed the assessment of the infringement carried out in the Measure, in particular, with reference to the nature of the agreement by object and the seriousness of the infringement, while, in partial acceptance of the appeal of the telephone companies, it set the parameters for the redetermination of the sanction to be imposed on the appellants.
THE FINES REDEFINED BY THE ANTITRUST TO FASTWEB, TIM, VODAFONE AND WINDTRE
Therefore, in light of the ruling of the Council of State, with separate provisions, signed by President Roberto Rustichelli, the Competition and Market Authority reduced the fine against Fastweb from 14.75 to 12.69 million; for Tim from 114.39 to 100.67 million; for Vodafone from 59.97 to 52.77 million and, finally, for Windtre from 38.97 to 36.37 million.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-lantitrust-lima-le-multe-a-tim-vodafone-windtre-e-fastweb/ on Tue, 17 Oct 2023 14:07:00 +0000.