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EU: Spanish, Portuguese mobile giants fined more than $105M for anticompetitive agreement

By  |  January 23, 2013

More than $105 million has been fined by the European Commission to Spain’s Telefónica and Portugal Telecom after an investigation found the two to have colluded in an anticompetitive agreement concerning the Iberian telecommunications market. According to the European Commission, the two parties once jointly owned mobile operator Vivo, based in Brazil. When Telefónica bought Vivo in full, the two parties inserted a non-compete clause in their contracts concerning Iberia. The agreement is in violation of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Iberia is the peninsula on which Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra all hold land. In a recent update, it has been announced that Telefónica will appeal the fine.

 

Full Content: European Commission

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