Vivendi and Iliad take FT to EC over competition
March 3, 2009
Vivendi and broadband provider Iliad have joined together to file a complaint with the European competition authorities against France Telecom claiming it has abused its dominant market position in the country's fixed-line and broadband market.
Vivendi chief Jean Bernard Lévy noted that 11 years after the market was open to competition, France Telecom still had an "overwhelming position", earning some 85 percent of gross margins before investment in the sector, leaving Iliad and Vivendi's SFR scrapping it out for the last 15 percent. Levy said that he was hoping that the complaint would see wholesale and residential prices come down, or even the splitting up the infrastructure and service sections of France Telecom's network. Levy said, " it is 11 years since the fixed-line business was supposedly open to competition. After 11 years, France Telecom still has an overwhelming position."
Lévy was speaking as Vivendi reported full-year results for 2008 see ATV 03.03.09.