France: Regulator seeks more info from Orange

In its latest results announcement, Orange France referred to an ongoing probe by France’s Competition Authority, on the suspicion that it discriminated in the wholesale fixed market.

BFM Business reports that it received a letter to this effect in March, and must now answer point by point for a decision from the regulator in the autumn or in 2016. Following complaints by Orange competitors Bouygues Telecom in 2008 and SFR in 2010, the authority is also looking at the operator’s loyalty schemes for enterprise mobile customers and exclusive discounts on enterprise data services.

Bouygues and now Numericable-SFR accuse the dominant mobile, fixed and internet operator of “anti-competitive practices, abusive loyalty programmes, anti-competitive promotions and particularly aggressive, even predatory, pricing,” according to a Paris appeal court in May 2012. Orange, which has leave to appeal the authority’s decision, agreed to pay Bouygues EUR 300 million in March 2014 to settle all legal action. The only remaining plaintiff is Numericable-SFR.

Full content: Telecompaper

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