Telecompaper

The Swiss federal administrative court has upheld the main elements of an appeal by Swisscom over a ruling by the competition commission Weko regarding allegedly illegal mobile termination fees and has overruled the fine of CHF 333 million. In February 2007 Weko ruled that Swisscom was market dominant in mobile termination and had violated its position as defined under the Swiss Cartel Act, following an investigation launched in 2002 into possible abuse of dominant market position by Switzerland's three mobile operators. Weko found that Swisscom was market dominant and had violated its position by charging unreasonably high fees between 1 April 2004 and 31 May 2005. Swisscom appealed to the Federal Administrative Court, arguing that it neither had a market dominant position nor acted improperly. The court found that Swisscom has a dominant market position, but rejected Weko's conclusion that the operator abused that position to charge higher mobile termination fees. The verdict is open for appeal at the Swiss Federal Court. Both Swisscom and Weko will review the reasons behind the ruling point by point over the coming weeks and decide on next steps. No provision has been set aside by Swisscom to cover this fine, which proved to be the right decision based on this ruling.