The European Commission (“Commission”) sent Statement of Objections to Czech mobile operators O2 CZ/CETIN (single economic unit) and T-Mobile for violating antitrust rules by signing their network sharing agreement. Commission opened the investigation in 25.10.2016.
O2 CZ/CETIN and T-Mobile are 2 major operators in the highly concentrated Czech mobile market. Total market share of 2 companies is approximately 75% of market.
The Commission sent statement of objections to parties in 7.8.2019 and has came to the preliminary conclusion that;
- Czech mobile market is highly concentrated with only three mobile network operators (O2 CZ/CETIN, T-Mobile and Vodafone),
- The parties to the network sharing agreement (O2 CZ/CETIN and T-Mobile) dominates the market by the market share of approximately 75%,
- In most cases, cooperation agreements for network sharing bring efficiencies but in this particular case, the agreement is likely to remove the incentives for mobile operators to improve their networks and services, that induces competition concerns of the Commission.
- the agreement between O2 CZ/CETIN and T-Mobile CZ which was signed in 2011, covered all mobile technologies and the entire territory of Czechia with the exception of Prague and Brno, thus amounting to around 85% of the population,
and therefore, the network sharing agreements was breaching the EU competition rules.
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NAZALI ANTITRUST |