Norway’s Regulator Fines Media Service Telenor

The Norwegian National Communications Authority (Nkom) on Tuesday, October 19, fined media service Telenor for breaching non-discrimination obligations, creating a disadvantage to access buyers.

The announcement, which was first made in March 2021, fined Telenor 15 million NOK (US$1.81 million) for the breach. The media communications service was found to be acting negligently when delivering access buyers’ orders on an agreed date compared to their own business deliveries. This was found to be anti-competitive.

The fine will act as an “infringement fee” to show the severity of the breach of obligation Market 3a, which seeks to prevent discrimination “in the wholesale market for local access to fixed access networks.” The aim of the obligation was to provide equality in service between access buyers and Telenor’s own end user business.

In a complaint by Global Connect, it was claimed that Telenor’s disproportionate treatment was breaching obligations for providers. It was also requested that the communications service provide a report of their Key Performance Indicators in more detail and consistently, so to ensure that discriminatory behavior can be accessed more quickly by Nkom.

The head of Nkom, Hans Jørgen Enger, stated that the increasing market power Telenor was gaining from their actions violated the “special obligations” in place. As a result, Telenor was damaging competition in the broadband market.

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