The Competition Tribunal dismissed a lawsuit based on abuse of dominant position by Fundación Chile Ciudadano against VTR Banda Ancha (Chile) S.A.. The Tribunal considered that the plaintiff lacked legal standing to sue the defendant, since the former did not demonstrate its participation in the market that was affected by the allegedly anticompetitive conduct of the latter, or in related markets that could have been indirectly affected. The Tribunal also considered that an individual cannot assume the representation of the public interest as a whole, exercising the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office’s functions.
In this ruling, the Tribunal declared that the lawsuit of RGB Producciones Digitales Limitada against VTR Banda Ancha (Chile) S.A. exceeded the statute of limitations, for alleged abuse of a dominant position in the paid TV market, exercised in the imposition of increasingly burdensome contractual conditions in the commercial relationship the parties maintained. This alleged abuse would have infringed the Competition Act (Decree Law 211) and the Competition Tribunal’s Resolution 1/2004.
The Competition Tribunal also dismissed RGB’s accusations against VTR, regarding the exclusion of its channel “Infonet” from the cable operator’s channel lineup, thereby infringing the Competition Act and the Competition Tribunal’s Resolution 1/2004. The Tribunal considered that alternative platforms can broadcast RGB’s product, and even if this was not the case, VTR did not violate the competition law by excluding Infonet from its channel lineup, since that action could not help VTR to achieve, maintain or augment a dominant position in any market.