Telecommunicatie: De Commissie verzoekt Duitse regelgever om Deutsche Telekom's aan- en afsluittearieven op te geven (en)
The European Commission, in a letter sent today, asks the German telecoms regulator, Bundesnetzagentur ("BNetzA"), to notify it of Deutsche Telekom's fixed call origination and termination rates. Origination and termination rates are wholesale charges for connecting calls between operators. Until now, BNetzA has only provided general information about the principles it will apply, but did not notify the level of the regulated rates to the Commission and the national regulators of the other 26 EU Member States, as required by the EU telecoms rules' consultation ("Article 7 procedure"). This procedure, provided for by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers since 2002, aims to ensure more coherent and transparent regulation of telecommunication markets across Europe, thereby avoiding distortions of competition between operators from different Member States. Should BNetzA continue to fail to comply with this obligation, the Commission may open an infringement procedure for non-compliance with EU law (Article 226 of the EC Treaty). In December 2008, the Commission had already requested BNetzA to notify mobile termination rates (see IP/08/1860).
"It is very important that the regulatory process is transparent for all stakeholders and that operators can quickly adapt their strategies on the market to the new regulatory requirements." said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
"Just as the Commission previously reminded Bundesnetzagentur to notify us of regulations on mobile termination rates before their adoption, we now need to remind them that the same legal requirement applies to wholesale prices charged by fixed line operators. In order to ensure consistent European regulatory landscape and to enhance internal market, it is vital that proposals for these important inter-operator charges are adopted only after consultation with the Commission and other national regulators in the EU, as required by the European law," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding.
In a letter sent to BNetzA, the German telecoms regulator, the Commission today rejected its justification for only notifying the general principles it applies in its draft regulation of origination and termination rates, and not including the actual levels at which it plans to set these rates. The Commission has on many occasions said that setting the level of termination rates has a clear cross-border effect and must be notified to it and other regulators under the EU telecoms rules. Generally, national regulators notify all elements of price remedies, as part of their market analyses. The draft measure BNetzA sent to the Commission on 27 February 2009 only mentions the general principles that it will apply in a special tariff authorisation procedure under which German operators ask the regulator to approve their rates and under which it will assess Deutsche Telekom's requests for approval of the specific origination and termination rates. The Commission and other national telecoms regulators are therefore not in a position to assess whether the German market is effectively regulated and whether such regulation is consistent with the approach adopted in other Member States.
The draft measures relate to fixed call origination and termination rates. Call origination rates are wholesale tariffs charged by a telephone operator for collecting calls at a telephone exchange and handing them over to another exchange or telephone company for completion to a called party. Termination rates are wholesale tariffs charged by the operator of a called party to the operator of the calling party's network. Both tariffs have a considerable impact on consumers' phone bills and are therefore subject to price regulation by BNetzA.
Background
The Commission's letter to BNetzA is sent under the "Article 7 procedure", of the EU Framework Directive (part of the EU telecoms rules). This procedure leaves considerable scope for national regulators to achieve effective competition, but requires them to notify the Commission of draft regulatory measures.
While termination rates are on a downward trend in the EU as a result of regulatory intervention at national level, the Commission has observed continuous inconsistency in average prices and regulatory approaches across Member States which cannot solely be explained by different national circumstances. The Commission is therefore finalising a Recommendation which sets clear and consistent principles on the relevant costs to be taken into account when analysing termination markets and setting tariff obligations (IP/08/1016, MEMO/08/438). In the case of Germany, the Commission and the regulators of other EU Member States have never had the chance to formally comment on the actual termination rates.
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