The Board (CD) of the Superintendencia de Competencia (SC) fined Telemóvil, Telefonica, Digicel and Intelfon a total of $1,215,497.94 for agreeing to jointly fix the rate of $ 0.21 plus VAT per minute for calls from the traditional local phone network to a mobile phone.
"This is a serious anti-competitive practice, performed on a public service with little options for alternatives for the end user affected by the agreement, with the intention to apply it across the country and performed by operators with a dominant position in their mobile networks", said Francisco Diaz Rodriguez, Superintendent of Competition.
The agreement between these four competitors in the mobile market violates letter a) of Article 25 of the Competition Act which prohibits agreements between competitors: It prohibits ‘anticompetitive practices carried out among competitors which, among other things, take the following forms: a) Establishing agreements to fix prices or other conditions of purchase or sales in any form’
The fine for Telemóvil is $658,050;, Telefónica was fined $260,672, Digicel $233,909, and Intelfon $62,866.
Source: Superintendencia de Competencia (El Salvador)
More on this topic
September 2011
The Costa Rican regulator has prevented telephone companies Telefónica and ICE from agreeing on tariffs for end users within a contract for interconnecting their networks.
The company Claro filed a complaint to the Superindendency of Telecommunications (Sutel), which stated that the access and interconnection agreement signed between the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and Telefónica, contained clauses where both companies agreed not to charge prices below the cost of services provided, considering the interconnection charges as a cost common to both.
August 2011
At the start of privatisation of the cellular market in Costa Rica, the Mexican company Claro is questioning agreements between the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the Spanish run Telefónica.
The complaint filed by Claro to the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel) indicates that in the access and interconnection agreement signed between the ICE and Telefonica, there are clauses where both companies are committed to not charging prices below the cost of services rendered, considering interconnection charges as a common expense to both parties.
March 2011
Six of the seven sugar mills operating in Honduras were fined a total of $ 3.2 million for monopolistic practices.
These are Chumbagua mills, CAHS, Yojoa, Choluteca, La Grecia and Tres Valles.
Elheraldo.hn published, "The penalty responds to violations of the Competition Law, specifically regarding Article 5, paragraph 1, which prohibits contracts, agreements, concerted practices, combinations or arrangements between competitors or competing operators with the purpose of establishing prices, fees or discounts."
March 2010
Monitoring news media is a key tool for detecting and researching practices that limit free competition.
In an article in Laprensagrafica.com, Ricardo Pineda details how the Competition Superintendence of El Salvador (SC) utilizes media monitoring to tackle anti competitive practices.
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