The case is not recent: in January 2013, the Commission had already imposed fines on Telefnica and Portugal Telecom for agreeing not to compete in the Iberian telecommunications markets.
However, in June 2016, while the General Court had fully upheld the Commission’s conclusions regarding the breach of EU antitrust rules, it had also annulled the fines pointing to errors in the basis of calculation. This decision of the General Court was then confirmed in 2017 by the Court of Justice on December 13, 2017.
Today’s decision takes full account of the Court’s ruling and, after a revised assessment, again imposes fines on Telefnica and Pharol for entering into a non-competition agreement.
Copyright (c) 2022 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.