The Commission for Protection of Competition (hereinafter ‘the CPC’) at its meeting convened on 3 September 2012, having evaluated all the evidence before it, unanimously concluded that the acts and / or omissions of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority and in particular its decision to block calls to premium services for users of prepaid mobile telephony, resulted in the abuse of its dominant position in the market. This constitute infringement of sections 6 (1) (a) 6 (1) (b) and 6 (1) (c) of the Protection of Competition Law N.13 (I) / 2008 (hereinafter ‘the Law').
The CPC did not accept as an objective justification CYTA’s position that the design of mobile prepaid telephony service (soeasy) had nothing to do with the Golden Telemedia or other content providers but was related to the demand and objectives of parents purchasing the service for their children who were minors. In relation to CYTAs’ justification, the CPC noted that the user of prepaid mobile telephony had already accessing to adult content through services of Premium SMS and therefore rejected CYTAs justification as not an objective one.
The CPCs’ decision noted that CYTA, under the conditions of the general authorization, it must ensure the functionality of networks and services throughout Cyprus, as well as the obligation not to discriminate among customers in mobile telephony.
The infringements relate to the period from 2005 to 13/6/2008, the date on which implements the decision of CYTAs’ Board of Directors dated 05.28.2008.
Therefore, CPC, acting on the basis of Section 24 (a) (i) of the Law decided:
(A) in respect to the infringement of Section 6 (1) (a) of the Law to impose a fine amounting €130.000 (one hundred and thirty thousand Euros),
(B) in Section respect to the infringement of Section 6 (1) (b) of the Law, to impose a fine amounting to €130.000 (one hundred and thirty thousand Euros), and
(C) in respect to the infringement of Section 6 (1) (c) of the Law, to impose a fine amounting to €130.000 (one hundred and thirty thousand Euros).