In January 2018, the Slovenian administrative court adopted a decision with which it upheld the findings of the competition authority that the major Slovenian mobile network operator Telekom Slovenije d.d. ("Telekom") abused its dominant position in two wholesale telecommunications markets for the access to its network to alternative telecommunication service providers necessary for the provision of broadband services to final users on fixed locations.
In its decision from February 2015, the competition authority established that Telekom abused its dominant position in the period from 2005 until 2014 on the wholesale market of broadband access with bit current by (i) refusing access of alternative operators to DSLAM, (ii) conditioning their use with lease of telephone connection by final users, even if this was not technically necessary. In addition, Telekom in the shorter periods between 2005 until 2014 abused its dominant position on the wholesale market for the access to physical network infrastructure by (i) limiting the access to alternative operators to refuse their queries on colocations; (ii) not allowing the alternative users to select types of collocations; (iii) giving alternative operators insufficient information on networks; and (iv) other practices.
The administrative court upheld all of the findings of the competition authority. It rejected only one point of the operative part referring to the abuse of dominant position by conditioning the access to network with a lease of telephone connection by final users, even if this was not technically necessary and returned this matter back to the competition agency for re-assessment. Therefore, the decision of the competition authority became final in its major part. Further developments in this respect, especially possible imposition of fine, are yet to be seen.
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