The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) board accepted the reconciliation request submitted by Telecom Egypt, regarding its violation of Article 8 of the law on the Protection of Competition and Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices.
The company partly disconnected companies in the internet industry from the internet supply line. This came after Telecom Egypt had replaced its copper cables with optical fibre cables, but had not fully reconnected the companies to the infrastructure after the replacement was completed. Telecom Egypt had also failed to notify the companies about the replacement plans.
Additionally, Telecom Egypt had imposed some unfamiliar conditions on providing internet services to companies throughout the replacement period, which lasted from September 2013 until October 2015.
Telecom Egypt is the sole owner of Egypt’s internet infrastructure, and is the only entity allowed to supply internet providers with the needed connections. The ECA had announced the violation of Telecom Egypt on 8 March.
The ECA approved the reconciliation after Telecom Egypt paid reconciliation value set by the law, and its pledge to oblige by a number of administrative measures to ensure compliance with the law.
In addition, the company also pledged to fully cooperate with the ECA to ensure fair competition in providing fixed internet infrastructure services.
The law states that a fine should not be below 1% of total revenues of the company that had caused the violations. The fine should also not exceed 10% of the company’s revenues during the violation period. In case of inability to calculate the estimated revenues, the fine is estimated at EGP 100,000 and should not exceed EGP 3m.
