EC fines TP SA €127.5m

2011-06-24



The European Commission (EC) imposed a €127.5m fine on leading Polish fixed-line operator TP SA for abusing its dominant position on the market through the denial of access to its wholesale internet access service, thus limiting competition. The amount of the fine is worth 3% of TP SA's annual revenue.

The fine pertains to the operation of TP in the period between August 2005 and October 2009, when the operator, according to the EC, was offering disadvantageous conditions of access to its wholesale internet access products, delaying the process of negotiations or limiting access to subscriber’s lines. The main reason for the EC’s decision, however, were incidents connected with the activation of bit stream access (BSA) in 2008, when Netia and other competing operators could not provide high quality internet on TP SA's lines.

According to TP SA, the EC did not take into consideration the fact that the operator voluntarily liquidated all barriers to cooperation between it and alternative operators.