The Competition Tribunal ruled in favor of OPS Ingeniería Ltda., ETCOM S.A., Interlink Global Chile Ltda. and Sistek Ltda., in lawsuits against Telefónica Móviles de Chile S.A. (TMCH), sentencing the latter to pay a fine of 3,000 Annual Tributary units (around US$ 2.8 million).
In its ruling, the Tribunal determined that TMCH incurred in arbitrary price discrimination, which turned into its competitors’ margin squeezes in the market of on-net landline-mobile phone termination services, and in refusal to sell, with the objective of transferring its dominant position in the mobile telephony market to the connected market of on-net landline-mobile phone termination services.
However, the Tribunal dismissed the lawsuits of OPS Ingeniería Ltda. and Sistek Ltda., in the part where they asked that TMCH be sanctioned for alleged service blocking.
Besides the aforementioned fine, the Tribunal forbade TMCH to charge arbitrarily discriminatory prices to on-net landline-mobile phone termination services companies, in comparison to prices charged to other customers of the mobile telephony service, and ordered it to refrain from any act that results in discrimination related to who demands its services, unless said discrimination is founded in objective circumstances, applicable to everyone in the same conditions.