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EU: Deutsche Telekom margin squeeze lands $88M fine

By  |  October 15, 2014

Germany-based Deutsche Telekom was fined by the European Commission Wednesday for squeezing rivals out of the market, say reports.

The company was fined about $88 million after the Commission found the company’s Slovak unit pushed rivals out of the broadband market during a five-year period beginning in 2005, according to reports. Deutsche Telekom’s wholesale prices were under particular scrutiny in the Commission’s investigation.

According to reports, this was Deutsche Telekom’s second instance of margin squeezing, and thus was fined along with its unit Slovak Telekom. In a statement, the Commission said that “Slovak Telekom did not only refuse to give access to its unbundled local loops under fair conditions. It also pursued a margin squeeze policy which made it impossible for alternative operators to use its legacy telephone network infrastructure without incurring a loss.”

Full content: Reuters

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