Several different files would have justified this spectacular intervention on March 10.
The Competition Authority raided Orange’s head office on March 10, according to information from Challenges, confirmed by the incumbent operator. A search in good and due form, with “millions of documents seized”, which leaves a very bitter taste in the company.
Two cases are mentioned. The first concerns the Antilles and more specifically the islands of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin, devastated after the passage of cyclone Irma in 2017. A local operator Dauphin Telecom accuses Orange of having first connected its own customers. “However, we cannot be blamed for having first reconnected the hospitals and the police services“, we grumble at Orange.
It is indeed time for amazement in a company that is nevertheless accustomed to searches by the Competition Authority. The magnitude of this is puzzling. Since the West Indian case is added a metropolitan component, this time concerning the wholesale market and more specifically services sold to local operators, grouped within the Association of Alternative Telecom Operators (AOTA). The complaint, filed in 2020, was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Orange said it had filed an appeal to “contest the seizure operations”.