Orange files Spanish competition complaints against Telefonica
MADRID (Reuters) - French telecoms group Orange on Wednesday said it had filed two complaints with the Spanish authorities against former local giant Telefonica for breaching competition rules.
Orange said in a statement that Telefonica's latest commercial deal which transfers for free clients with a 10 Mbps internet contract to a fibre optic package including TV content made it impossible for competitors to replicate the offer without supporting negative margins.
Under current rules Telefonica, a former monopoly which rents its copper network to competitors, is obliged to make it possible for them to replicate offers which include internet connexions below 30 Mbps.
Orange filed a second complaint about the lack of maintenance of the network and a drop in service quality.
The French group also urged the antitrust authorities to veto or seek important remedies ensuring fair competition for Telefonica's proposed takeover of Digital+, the pay-TV unit of Prisa.
The deal would give Telefonica a 80 percent market share of pay-TV content in Spain.
Telefonica declined to comment.
(Reporting by Julien Toyer, editing by Louise Heavens)
