INTERNET: FRANCE TELECOM LOSES APPEAL OVER COMPETITION RULING.

The Court of Appeal in Paris found France T?l?com guilty on April 10 of hampering competition for sales of high-speed Internet access following a complaint by Club Internet/T-Online France. The ruling confirms the decision of France's Council on Competition of February 27, which ordered the telephone operator to stop selling Wanadoo's ADSL packs in its France Telecom outlets. The Council had also ruled that a server should be made available to Wanadoo's rival internet service providers (ISPs) on the same terms and conditions as those offered to Wanadoo Interactive, enabling them to ascertain server availability and process requests for ADSLs (asymetric digital subscriber lines). The Court of Appeal said that France T?l?com's practices "seriously undermine the competition as they reinforce the tendency towards monopoly in the sectors concerned and allow France Telecom to structure the market as it pleases, giving its subsidiary a...