The Commission for Protection of Competition confirmed that the companies Telekom and Telenor approached it because of the cooperation that N1 has been reporting on for several days. The Commission cannot provide more information on this, nor prejudge the deadlines and its actions. Experts say that the agreement between the two companies is a classic example of violating the rules of free competition, and that its essence is – control of the media market and the abolition of independent media.
If you can’t defeat him alone, you unite against him – it may be valid in a war, but not on the free market. This is only a part of the plan of Telekom and Telenor, a paper that clearly shows why the agreement between the two companies is being concluded.
“Cooperation with Telenor has great benefits in increasing revenues, users and the final breakdown of SBB, and we propose that such an agreement be adopted,” is the conclusion of the plan agreed by Telekom and Telenor.
The final break, according to Telekom’s plan, is to reduce SBB’s market share below 30 percent.
We asked for the reaction of the Commission for Protection of Competition. It is said that both companies addressed her and that in this case it is not a matter of merging two market participants, but an exemption from the ban on agreements on limited and defined business cooperation in a certain business segment.
“Having in mind that this is a specific market for the development and functioning of which the sectoral regulatory bodies are also competent, the Commission will, as before, act in cooperation with them on this request for individual exemption. At this moment, we cannot present more information or prejudge the deadlines as well as our actions,” the Commission stated.
“Telekom will cede some of its assets exclusively to Telenor so that it can enter the field of cable television and the Internet, and this will not enable others, but vice versa, it will serve to strengthen the monopoly behavior of the two companies in the market,” said the consultant for investments, Milan Kovacevic.
Nova S: What happens if the Commission for Protection of Competition is declared incompetent?
“It should not be declared incompetent, even ex officio, it should already be announced what it will do and analyze that agreement and determine the violation of the rules of free competition,” he added.
Telekom and Telenor have created an unprincipled economic coalition as proof of how predatory the state can be on the market, concludes economist Misa Brkic. He says from the Commission for Protection of Competition, we can expect anything and everything.
“We don’t actually have a Commission for Protection of Competition, it looks like the SNS party board, and instead of having a regulator that defends the market from state attacks, we have silence, and no matter how much money Telekom needs to destroy competition, it will get that money from the state,” he said.
The opposition and some media do not have a dilemma what is behind the plan of the state Telekom and the private Telenor.
“And not because of profit, but because of maintaining the rating of the party and the fraternity, so the path and goal of uniting Telenor and Telekom to destroy and eliminate SBB is equal to the non-existence of N1 and Nova S televisions and for me it is absolutely alarming,” said Marinka Tepic.
“If you have a monopoly in video content, then you can dictate prices and dictate the attitude of the media towards the government. It seems to me that this is a political move to bring under control those who ask questions and seek answers from the authorities,” said journalist Ivan Protic.
And it is important to ask these questions as well: could a Czech businessman, the owner of Telenor, do business in this way in the Czech Republic, ie the EU, and would such an arrangement with Telekom be possible at all if Telenor remained owned by Norway?, Nova S reports.
