MEO Appeals Penalty Ratio Confirmed by Competition Court

MEO has announced that it will appeal to the Lisbon Court of Appeal against the decision of the Competition Court, which this Monday upheld the €84 million fine for the NOWO cartel.

“Today, faced with the decision [esta segunda-feira] ruled by the Court of Competition, Regulation and Supervision, with which we strongly disagree, MEO will file an appeal with the Lisbon Court of Appeal to demonstrate its innocence and obtain the removal of the sanction applied,” the company said in a statement. sent to Lusa.

The Court of Competition, Regulation and Supervision (TCRS) in Santarém upheld this Monday the €84 million fine imposed by the Competition Authority (AdC) on MEO in December 2020 for the cartel with NOWO, deeming the call to challenge “completely unfounded”.

Judge Wanda Miguel found that MEO had committed a very serious breach of which it was accused by the AdC when it entered into an agreement to fix prices and limit the market for mobile and fixed-line services, with corresponding consequences for consumers.

Wanda Miguel stated that the breach took place over a period of approximately 11 months (January to November 2018) and ended not at the active initiative of the MEO, but because the AdC took search and seizure steps on that day.

He also highlighted the fact that during the trial the company showed a lack of critical awareness of its activities, emphasizing that behavior such as that in this trial constituted a “harsh” (aggressive) violation of the rules of competition.” cannot take place in the free market.

The AdC decision, now confirmed by TCRS, believes that the anti-competitive agreement signed between MEO and NOWO “involves higher prices and reduced quality of services provided, as well as restrictions on the geographic availability of the same services that penalized consumers throughout the country.”

The process began with NOWO’s request for leniency, as a result of which this company was exempted from paying a fine of 4.6 million euros that would be imposed on it in the context of the process.

This is an anti-competitive agreement signed in January 2016 following a contract with a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in line with commitments made to the European Commission when Altice acquired PT, including the sale of ONI and Cabowisan (now NOWO).

The two companies started their operations independently in April 2016 with the support of the MEO infrastructure network under the MVNO contract.

In the anti-competitive agreement, NOWO has committed not to launch mobile services outside the geographic areas where it provided fixed services, thereby not competing with MEO, namely in the Lisbon and Porto areas, and not to continue to implement the packages that it has prepared and targets. attracting new subscribers, such as, for example, mobile offers from five euros or less.

In addition to the fine, TCRS also confirmed the additional sanction of publishing the decision after the final decision in Diário da República and in the national newspaper, given the seriousness and guilt of the company.