Telekom – The Impregnable State Fortress
Last
month, the Ljubljana District Court issued its ruling, completely dismissing
T-2’s damages claims against Telekom Slovenije in the amount of 130 million
euros. T-2 filed its lawsuit already six years ago against Telekom Slovenije
over alleged anti-competitive actions, which, it claimed, prevented it from
successfully entering the internet services market. The main hearing did not
get underway until January of this year, but it finished in just an hour and a
half, so the ruling was no surprise. At the hearing, the judge did not even ask
the question of whether or not the claims of Telekom’s abuse of dominant market
position were founded, but first verified that T-2 had submitted enough evidence to
calculate the damages. Since the judge was of the opinion that a solid cubic
meter of documents was insufficient, she completed the proceedings without even
giving T-2 an opportunity to submit additional evidence for its claims. With
such a conclusion to the case in which the parties submitted to the court a
total of three thousand pages of written materials over the course of six years
and over five thousand pieces of evidence, one has to ask the question, what
poses the greatest obstacle to competition: Telekom, the Civil Procedures Act,
or Slovenian courts themselves? Or is this a concerted action?Is Telekom not guilty?
Telekom’s
management continues to insist that it has always adhered to Slovenian
legislation, and that it has not violated any competition rules. Yet the facts
suggest otherwise. Telekom’s competitors have been fighting against its
anti-competitive activities and abuse of dominant market position since 1996.
In these fifteen years, at least a dozen proceedings have been initiated before
the Slovenian Competition Protection Agency (previously the Competition
Protection Office). The Agency has never been particularly keen on
investigating Telekom’s alleged abuses, as the proceedings for establishing the
existence of infringements have always been dragged out longer than stipulated
by law, but it has nonetheless issued a few decisions.
