The European Commission (EC) has fined Slovak Telekom and its parent company Deutsche Telekom AG almost €39 million for having abused their dominant position on the market for more than 5 years.
The European Commission claims that Slovak Telekom was trying to shut out competitors from the market for broadband services in Slovakia, refused to provide unbundled access to local loops to its competitors, and applied a policy of margin squeeze toward alternative providers. The parent company Deutsche Telekom also received an additional fine of €31 million by the EC that aims to ensure a sufficient deterrent effect and sanction repeated abuse of its dominant position, as a similar penalty was imposed in Germany some 11 years ago. The overall fine, for which Deutsche Telekom is responsible, is thus a little short of €70 million.
