France Télécom and SFR/Cégétel have been hit with fines of €18mn and €2mn respectively on charges of price-fixing and market-rigging by the Competition Council in France. The move follows action by France’s telecom regulator, the ART, concerning special tariffs relating to fixed-to-mobile calls for corporate customers.

The action and the fines relate to events during the period 1999-2001. France’s third wireless group, Bouygues, was cleared of similar charges due to the fact that its fixed-line presence is negligible. To be clear, the fines are actually being imposed on the parents of these vertically-integrated fixed/mobile operators.

Bang to rights
In a statement, le Conseil de concurrence said that “fixed-to-mobile rates to Intinéris, proposed by France Telecom to businesses, offered tariffs which did not cover the variable costs incurred in the supply of these services (such as the set call termination charge for its mobile network). It was the same for offers on fixed-to-mobile calls to SFR made to enterprises by Cégétel.”

The Competition Council added that “these practices had added effect since they took place at a point of transition, when effective bypass solutions to direct interconnection were not available to alternative operators.” It also said: “in effect, new entrants in the fixed-line telephony market could not propose competitive offers to business for fixed-to-mobile services [terminating with] Itinéris or SFR, via a direct connection to the FTM [Itinéris] or SFR networks, without incurring losses.”

Across Europe, the issue of fixed-to-mobile call charges is gathering pace. €20mn worth of fines will hardly change the shape of the world, but it’s nice to see that France, derided by so many as the home to ‘soft regulation’ of incumbents, is taking a stand. That leaves about 80 developed world economies needing to follow suit.
Jim Chalmers