Polish telco Telekomunikacja Polska has stifled competition in its domestic broadband market, an EC anti-trust investigation has found.
The EC believes TP has exploited its incumbent status by failing to discount or reduce the wholesale price of broadband access in the country, and breached European Union rules covering abuse of dominant positions.
TP made it hard for competitors to gain access to its broadband network during a ten month investigation, the Commission says in its preliminary results,employing delaying tactics and failing to provide competitors with information considered essential to business planning.
“This has hindered the development of the broadband retail market in Poland,” the EC states.
TP now has eight weeks to respond to a Statement of Objections issued by the EC yesterday. The statement outlines the Commission’s concerns, and is used along with the defendant’s reply to assess if EU antitrust rules have been broken.
If EU laws have been breached, the Commission can fine TP and would order it to open up its broadband network to competitors.