Antitrust: The European Commission is Checking Comments on Commitments Offered by T-Mobile CZ, CETIN, and O2 CZ Concerning the Czech Telecommunications Market

European Commission has released a press corner regarding commitments by T-Mobile CZ, CETIN, and O2 on 1 October 2021.

In October 2016, the Commission opened a formal investigation into a network sharing agreement between O2 CZ and CETIN on the one hand and T-Mobile CZ on the other. In August 2019, the Commission sent Statements of Objections to T-Mobile CZ, CETIN and O2 CZ and later on to their parent companies, outlining its preliminary competition concerns. In August 2021, the Commission adopted a preliminary assessment within the meaning of Article 9(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 after carefully analysing all the arguments and evidence gathered.

According to the Commission's preliminary assessment, the NSAs and the MNSA may restrict competition in violation of Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (“TFEU”), which prohibits anti-competitive agreements.

The Commission's preliminary analysis has shown that in light of market circumstances in Czechia, the NSAs and the MNSA might reduce the ability and incentives of T-Mobile CZ, CETIN and O2 CZ to unilaterally invest in network infrastructure and therefore may negatively affect the ability and incentives of T-Mobile CZ and O2 CZ to compete on the retail and wholesale markets for mobile telecommunications services in Czechia.

T-Mobile CZ, CETIN and O2 CZ and their respective parent companies offered the following commitments to address the Commission's competition concerns:

  • To modernise the mobile network, through the deployment of multi-standard Radio Access Network (“RAN”) equipment in certain radio frequency layers;
  • To set and review the financial conditions for unilateral network deployments, in order to ensure cost-based pricing of any investments or services provided by the operator responsible for the shared network in that part of the country on behalf of the other operator;
  • To improve the NSAs contractual provisions to limit information exchange to the absolutely necessary for the operation of the shared network;
  • In relation to the MNSA, to implement measures to ensure that CETIN effectively prevent information spill-over between T-Mobile CZ and O2 CZ.

The Commission invites all interested parties to submit their views on the proposed commitments within one month from their publication in the Official Journal. Taking into account all comments received, the Commission will then take a final view as to whether the commitments sufficiently address competition concerns.

You can find the full text of the press corner here.

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr