Competition authority upholds complaint over TDC

Denmark’s Competition Council has upheld a complaint from Song Networks that former monopoly operator TDC is abusing its dominant position in the market. Song Networks, which provides voice and data telephony services and broadband solutions to businesses, alleges that TDC is unfairly discriminating against new market entrants by offering greater discounts to service providers buying high capacity volumes than it offers to smaller operators purchasing less. Moreover TDC is accused of contravening Section 11 of the Danish Competition Act by exercising a margin squeeze and selling its own end-user products with too low a profit margin – i.e. too close to the prices its charges rivals for wholesale services – making it hard for them to compete. The decision by the Danish Competition Authority to uphold the complaint is being hailed as a major victory for the nation’s alternative operators.