The Italian Competition Authority opens an Article 101 TFEU into a joint venture in the telecommunication sector
By a decision made on 1 st February 2017 the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened an Article 101 TFEU investigation into a joint venture agreement entered into by two major Italian telecommunication operators, Telecom Italia (TI) and Fastweb (FW) ( Case I799, Reti in fibra ottico Telecom Italia-Fastweb ). By this agreement, TI and FW agreed to set up a company, Flash Fiber (FF), to which entrust the task to develop and expand optical fiber networks, in accordance with the Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) standard, in many Italian cities. Some competitors of the parties, Wind Telecomunicazioni, Vodafone Italia and Enel, filed a number of complaints with the ICA voicing their concerns that the implementation of the joint venture agreement would result in a horizontal coordination between TI and FW in the retail and wholesale telecommunication markets. TI and FW, then, notified the contested joint venture agreement to the ICA and also provided it with further information. The fir...