The secretariat of the Swiss competition commission Weko has submitted an application to Weko to issue sanctions against Swisscom for abuse of its dominant market position in ADSL services and has asked Swisscom to make a statement on the matter. Swisscom has been overcharging its competitors for setting up ADSL lines for their customers, disabling ISPs like Sunrise, VTX or Green to actually compete with Swisscom and Bluewin. This so-called margin squeeze practice is illegal in Switzerland, and the fine will be calculated on the basis of revenues in the relevant markets. In a first reaction, Swisscom showed surprise by the content and timing of the application, since there is currently a case before the Federal Administrative Court to evaluate the question of possible market dominance, while the Weko secretariat has already assumed that is the case. On the other hand, according to Swisscom, the Federal Administrative Court is also clarifying whether sanctions may be imposed on a company's pricing policy if there was no legal ruling on market dominance when the company set its prices and the company was completely unaware of the prices deemed acceptable by Weko. Until there is legal clarity regarding these issues, Swisscom will not be making any provisions for possible fines. Swisscom will examine the draft decree and make use of the opportunity to justify its position.
