Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EC closes Internet connectivity services investigation of telecommunications companies, (Oct 3, 2014)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

The European Commission (EC) has completed its investigation of a number of telecommunications companies that are active in the provision of Internet connectivity in Europe and has concluded that the companies’ observed practices do not breach EU antitrust law, the agency announced today. The EC previously confirmed that it performed unannounced inspections of a number of telecommunications companies in July 2013, noting that it was concerned that the companies were attempting to shut out competition from the Internet transit or Internet content markets.

According to the EC, the European telecommunications companies that were investigated, all provide Internet access services to end users and frequently have an in-house Internet transit division. Consequently, these companies are able to charge for interconnection capacity, and service quality could significantly deteriorate if certain traffic routes become congested. However, the EC found no evidence that the companies’ were attempting to foreclose transit services from the market or to provide unfair advantage to the companies’ own proprietary content services.

Regardless, “it is important that users are aware of the interconnection policies pursued by their [I]nternet access providers and the impact that this may have on the quality of service obtained from certain content providers, whose content requires a high bandwidth,” the Commission warned. “The [EC] will therefore continue to monitor the sector closely.”

News: Antitrust