OPTA imposes a penalty on KPN: KPN is giving preferential treatment to its own business unit

OPTA has imposed a penalty of €375,000.00 on KPN Telecom BV. The reason for this penalty lies in OPTA’s discovery that it had contravened the provisions of the Telecommunications Act and the European directive on unbundled access to the local loop.

Unbundled access is a legally stipulated method in accordance with which KPN provides specific facilities to its competitors to enable them to develop their own electronic services for consumers and small businesses. These ADSL services, which involve its competitors partly or entirely using KPN’s lines connecting homes to local telephone exchanges for commercial purposes, may compete with those ADSL services provided by KPN.

This contravention took the form of KPN giving preferential treatment to its own Internet Protocol Services business unit, KPN’s ADSL service provider in relation to other market parties. This involved the provision of weekly information and access to information systems. This made it easier for KPN’s own business unit to check orders more quickly and simply, thereby minimising the risk of them being rejected. KPN is acting in breach of its duty not to discriminate by failing to provide its competitors with facilities that are equal to those which it provides to its own business unit, and to do so subject to the same conditions and within identical periods of time. The penalty covers the period from 23 June 2000 to 1 December 2002.

For some time now OPTA has been actively investigating the way the various parties actually operate within the telecommunications market. Its discovery of KPN’s contravention is a result of these activities.