2024-07-26 07:56:19
“Bitė”, which applied to the institution, claims that the attempt to limit competition was thus stopped.
At the time, Telia indicated that it was considering contesting the service’s recent decision.
According to the RRT ruling, Telia falsely claimed that there was no technical possibility to offer the customer fiber-optic Internet, although it undertook to do so and created barriers to competition.
“The defendant, Telia Lietuva, AB, unreasonably (…) submitted a negative answer to the technical feasibility study,” the decision of the institution is presented in the ruling.
According to the decision of the institution, the pharmacy chain “Euroapotheca” in 2023 Telia refused to provide a network switching service after requesting the purchase of fiber optic Internet services from Bitė.
The document mentions that Telia committed to providing such a service as early as 2020, when it signed a contract with Bite.
“According to the plaintiff (Bitė – ELTA), the defendant (Telia – ELTA), while providing Internet services to the Customer, after the plaintiff submitted a request to provide DCP (switching) for the provision of analog services, unjustifiably and illegally refused to provide it by providing an exclusively formal explanation” , – the decision of the RRT reads.
As we indicate in the document, suppliers recognized as having significant market power by the RRT decision must provide access and network connection services and publicly announce this on their website.
Moreover, the director of RRT in 2019 obliged “Telia” to grant access to other companies.
Telia responded to such accusations by stating many objective reasons why it could not provide the service. Also, according to the company, Bitė did not properly assess whether it could meet the needs of Euroapotheca.
“The plaintiff (“Bitė” – ELTA) does not indicate in the request that other reasons are not clear, understandable or that any questions arise about them, therefore the defendant (“Telia” – ELTA) assesses that the other reasons are clear, understandable and no questions arise about them” , – the document presents Telia’s position.
In addition, according to Telia, there is no evidence that the pharmacy chain planned to abandon their data transmission services, and intends to transfer the services to another operator.
RRT was not convinced by such arguments, the service found that Telia must indicate the conditions for obtaining access to wholesale services to its competitor Bitė Lietuva.
In addition, Telia was awarded 2,156 euros in litigation costs in favor of the plaintiff.
Director of “Bitė Lietuva”: we have been dealing with the malicious behavior of a competitor for many years
“Bitė Lietuva” CEO Gintas Butėnas says that such a victory is important in the fight against Telia Lietuva’s attempts to limit its competitors and prevent them from participating in the fixed internet market.
According to him, the company has applied to the RRT for such or similar cases more than once.
“The RRT performed the work of the market watchdog in a professional and impartial manner and thoroughly examined the dispute, recognizing that Telia grossly violated the law and took advantage of a dominant position.
Such an unfair practice by Telia, that is, when it judged for its own benefit whether or not to provide wholesale Internet access, was and is flawed.
And this case is one of many that we asked the regulator to examine,” says G. Butėnas.
“We have been dealing with malicious and possibly unfair behavior of a competitor for many years. Telia Lietuva, which has been in a dominant position for many years, always comes up with more and more creative ways to prevent competitors from entering the fixed internet market. It is true that it is very difficult to prove such behavior,” he explains.
The director of Bitė hopes that such a decision by the institutions will force Telia to change its business practices and allow the Lithuanian communications market to develop and its competition to strengthen.
“We hope that this RRT decision will change Telia’s business practices and in the future all market participants will have equal fair opportunities to obtain wholesale access,” he said.
“Bitė” aims to make the process of changing the service provider in the fixed internet market similar to that of changing the mobile operator or electricity supplier. A client who signs a contract with a new service provider would inform the old one about the changes, and the new services would be activated for him within 1 day,” adds the manager of “Bites”.
According to Bitė, Telia Lietuva has tried to limit its ability to act as a competitor before.
Still in 2020 The telecommunications company that acquired Mezon at the end of 2015 could not use the purchase due to legal disputes initiated against it by a competitor.
However, Telia lost the dispute with RRT regarding the sale of the Mezon business to Bite.
Telia: We always honor requests to connect to our network when technically possible
In response to the RRT’s decision, Telia states that it is considering the possibilities of contesting it.
In addition, according to the company, future comments will be taken into account regarding how other companies are given the opportunity to use Telia’s networks.
“We appreciate the RRT’s decision and the further opportunity to challenge it.” However, in any case, we are grateful to the regulator for the provided comments and the opportunity to reassess our internal processes when communicating to the market about the possibilities of using our networks,” states Telia’s comment sent to Elta.
The company also assures that 95 percent cases allows competitors such as Bee to join the network.
The company claims that connection is only allowed when the lines are busy due to services provided to other customers.
“Lithuanian laws oblige us, as the country’s largest telecommunications company, to provide Internet access to our network so that our competitors can also take advantage of its advantages. When there are technical and other objective possibilities, we do it all the time.
Last year alone, Bitė sent over 1,500 requests to connect to the Telia network, and only 5 percent were accepted. “Bitė’s desire to provide services in our network was not technically feasible in some cases,” the company points out.
In addition, Telia has criticized its competitors who want to use its networks but invest much less in their own infrastructure.
The quality of Telia’s network has attracted competitors like bees to honey for many years. Therefore, it is not surprising that their desperate efforts prefer to use hundreds of millions of Telia network investments, rather than invest themselves in building their own networks. According to RRT data, since 2022 alone, Telia has invested more in its networks than the other two big competitors put together,” the comment reads.
2024-07-26 07:56:19