The European Commission has opened an investigation into Dutch regulator ACM’s proposed analysis of the wholesale market for local access. ACM wants to regulate local access to KPN's copper and fibre networks in order to tackle competition problems. The Commission said it has serious doubts at this stage as to whether this market has been defined and analysed in accordance with EU telecom rules and with competition law principles.
The Commission has concerns about the analysis of competition on the retail market for consumer internet access and also wonders if KPN can continue to benefit from its strong position on the wholesale market in the face of the merged UPC/Ziggo entity, whose network also serves customers throughout almost the entire country. However, UPC/Ziggo are not subject to wholesale access regulations.
The Commission now has two months to discuss the case with the Dutch regulator, in close cooperation with the body of European regulators (Berec), in order to ensure compliance with EU law. The Commission may, at the end of the investigation period, either lift its reservations or demand that ACM withdraws the proposed measure.
The ACM sent its draft decision on wholesale access to the EC 01 April. The regulator said it was "surprised" by the Commission's response. The ACM kept the EC up to date over the past year as it analysed the market and held a consultation and did not receive any earlier signals that it may encounter problems. "Furthermore it's our understanding that the Commission is not looking for further regulation," said Henk Don, board member at the ACM.
