Editor’s Note: In May 2001 the OECD held a Roundtable on Competition and Regulation issues in telecommunications. The OECD published Competition and Regulation Issues in Telecommunications, which presents the proceedings of the Roundtable. This practice note summarizes some of the key highlights.
In all OECD countries the generic competition law applies fully to the telecommunications sector. No countries reported exemptions in the application of the competition law to the telecommunications sector.
Competition cases are common in the telecommunications sector. All the forms of anti-competitive abuse of a dominant position (including denial of access to an essential facility, predation, tying and bundling) can be found. Most abuse cases relate to access to essential facilities, that is:
- Whether or not a particular service must be offered to a rival,
- The timeliness and quality with which the service must be provides, and
- The price at which the service is offered, particularly in comparison to the price, timeliness or quality that the dominant operator provides service to itself.
Most OECD countries also have telecommunications sector specific laws enforced by a separate national regulatory agency (NRA). In virtually all OECD countries, both the national regulatory agency and the competition authority have some responsibility for controlling anti-competitive behaviour in the telecommunications industry.
In many countries the regulatory agency and competition authority have explicit coordination and co-operation agreements. For example the Netherlands, Korea, the Czech Republic and Norway have such agreements.
In the Netherlands, the telecommunications sector is regulated by both the NRA (the regulatory agency) and the NMa (the competition authority). These two bodies have jointly authored publications and have set up joint industry-oversight teams.
In the Czech Republic, the Office for the Protection of Competition and the Czech Telecommunications Office signed a memorandum of co-operation in January 2001. The memorandum establishes mutual consultation on cases that fall within the scope of both authorities. It also establishes the transfer of information on applications made to each body, with the aim of minimizing interference with each other’s work and duplication of effort.
Korean general competition law is overseen by the Korean Fair Trade Commission. The Korean Communications Commission enforces telecommunications specific regulation. The Telecommunications Business Act allocates responsibilities and establishes the terms of co-operation between the two bodies. It requires the two bodies to consult in regard to complaints of unfair competition, applications for business transfers and mergers, and applications for access to essential facilities.