On May 30, 2013, the Portuguese Competition Authroity (AdC) opened an infringement proceeding against by TMN - Telecomunicações Móveis Nacionais, SA (currently MEO - Serviços de Comunicações e Multimédia, SA); Vodafone Portugal - Personal Communications, S.A.; Optimus - Comunicações, S.A. (currently NOS Comunicações, S.A.) to investigate an alleged abuse of a dominant position in the retail mobile services market and in the wholesale termination markets on individual mobile networks and Short Message Service (SMS) on individual mobile networks.
These practices would result in: (i) any undue differentiation by these companies between the prices applicable to intra-network communications and the prices applicable to inter-network communications in connection with land mobile retail service (SMT) offerings; and (ii) the possible definition of excessive prices by the companies concerned associated with the wholesale offer of SMS termination on their mobile networks.
The AdC concluded that:
(i) the existence of a dominant position of TMN, Vodafone and / or Optimus in the retail market for mobile communications services was not demonstrated;
(ii) the consideration as restrictive practices of the practices of TMN, Vodafone and / or Optimus in the retail market for the provision of mobile communications services demanded an analysis that was not in line with and did not reflect the reality of the market;
(iii) the conduct of TMN, Vodafone and / or Optimus in the retail market for the provision of mobile communications services did not appear to be restriction or prevent the development of competition in the relevant market;
(iv) the periodic intervention of ICP - National Communications Authority (ICP-ANACOM), as the regulatory authority for electronic communications and postal communications, in upstream markets, namely wholesale voice call termination markets in individual mobile networks (in which each operator has an individual dominant position in its network) has been correcting any distortions that may have existed; and
(v) the wholesale mobile termination prices charged by each of the national mobile network operators are currently and were, at the time of the investigation, determined on the basis of bilateral interconnection agreements.
The AdC concluded therefore that there was not an abuse of dominant position and on November 21, 2014, the AdC closed the case with a filing decision.