Lack of standing against HT, Vipnet and Tele2

The complainant basically stated that the telecom operators HT, Vipnet and Tele2 agreed in July 2014 to concurrently introduce an access charge (the amount subscribers have to pay for the access to the network).

The Croatian Competition Agency (CCA) carried out a preliminary market investigation with the view to establishing whether this presumed agreement and the said access charge constituted a mutual arrangement of the parties concerned or it was merely follow-the-leader pricing which in it self does not raise competition concerns.

The CCA established that it was HT who first introduced the access charge, Vipnet and Tele2 followed instantaneously. However, there was no direct evidence and no indices that would point at any kind of mutual agreement. The CCA found that there has been no direct contact nor information sharing between the undertakings concerned.

All the operators concerned commented that what they all imposed was a kind of surcharge that they had to pay. Namely, the amount of the licence fee for spectrum usage tripled in accordance with the new provisions adopted by the relevant ministry in May 2014. What followed was the introduction of the surcharge by the telecom operators in the time span from 1 – 12 July 2014. In other words, the changes in the specific regulatory framework made the telecoms increase their prices almost simultaneously.

The above described behaviour of the telecoms, without direct evidence or indices about the alleged agreement between them or a prior arrangement, did not suffice for the opening of an ex-officio procedure against them. In this concrete case, it was HT who as the market leader was the first who announced the introduction of the surcharge, Vipnet and Tele2 followed the market leader. Such a behaviour is not in contravention with competition rules or the European legal framework and as such cannot be prohibited.