INTERNET: RECORD FOR FRANCE TELECOM FOR ABUSE OF ITS DOMINANT POSITION.

France Telecom, which announced on November 8 that it would be appealing against the decision, explains in a statement that a wholesale broadband market did not exist at the time in any European country and even now only exists in a small number of countries, concerning less than 6% of ADSL lines in Europe. The operator was already fined euro 20 million in May 2004 for failing to comply with an order in February 2000 to cut wholesale tariffs, a fine raised to Euro 40 million by the Paris Court of Appeal in January 2005.

The case was brought to the competition authority's attention by Neuf Telecom (now Neuf Cegetel) in 1999. ADSL technology was launched in France that year, thus opening two markets: the supply of services to subscribers (retail market), and the wholesale market concerning Internet access providers. France Telecom, as the incumbent, still held a virtual monopoly of the network and was reluctant to open it to competitors including Neuf Telecom, thereby forcing Internet access providers to use its services from end to end. In this way it was able to dominate both the retail market through its Wanadoo subsidiary, and the wholesale market through its offer to Internet...