Jupiter: 534M euros fine for Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom

Thomas Husson at Jupiterresearch posts about the €534m fines French mobile operators - Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom - have in curred for collusion between 1997 and 2003. Husson notes "they had acted against the best interests of consumers and the economy by sharing confidential information and agreeing on market shares." Orange was fined €256m, SFR €220m and Bouygues Telecom €58m.

Husson thinks "This is really bad news for the French operators, because of the record amount of the fine (up to 3% of the turnover for Orange and SFR) and essentially because of the bad press resulting from this decision and the damage it will do to the operators' credibility."

Husson's last assessment is the:

telcos still need lobbyists...Bouygues Telecom is asking Bruxelles to look at the roaming market. It is taking action against the Freemove alliance ! It is probably true the third player does not have much of the lucrative roaming market : Orange benefits from the calls of Telefonica, T-mobile and Tim (its parnters in the alliance) whereas SFR benefits from that of parent company Vodafone.