Český Telecom repeatedly infringed the law

4 Nov 2004

The Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition, Josef Bednář, confirmed the fine amounting to 23 million CZK imposed on the company Český Telecom.

The reason for the fine is an abuse of dominant position in the market for provision of access to the Internet services and data transmission services via broadband technology xDSL (ADSL) at the public fixed telecommunication networks to the detriment of competitors and final consumers.

Even though the party to the proceedings was contacted by its competitors and asked for provision of information necessary for network interconnection, it did not provide this information and published its reference offer for network access using ADSL technology for other operators only at the end of January 2003, following the decision of the Chairman of the Czech Telecommunication Office (ČTÚ). Nevertheless, Český Telecom certainly was able to provide the information necessary for network interconnection at least as of 25 February 2002, when it published general conditions for provision of its IOL Platinum services. The duration of the infringement thus amounted to 11 months (from 25 February 2002 to 27 January 2003), during which other public telecommunication network operators were precluded from entering this market.

Press and Information Department