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 Energis Submits New BT Complaint To Oftel. 17 June 2003
Energis has submitted a complaint to Oftel under the Competition Act 1998 against the exclusionary and anti-competitive pricing of BT’s IPStream and DataStream broadband products. This move is strongly supported by fellow telecoms operators Tiscali and Your Communications In conjunction Energis, Tiscali and Your Communications have withdrawn their recent complaints made to Oftel under the Telecommunications Act 1984 against BT’s price reduction on its IPStream broadband product. The alternative telecoms companies have taken this action as they consider the regulation under the Telecommunications Act 1984 to be ineffective. BT is exercising a stranglehold on the wholesale broadband market by pricing rival operators out of the ISP and corporate markets. Under the Competition Act 1998 Oftel has a wider brief against which to consider Energis’ complaint and Energis can appeal to the Competition Appeals Tribunal, which specialises in determining damages under competition law. The Tribunal is required to hear appeals on their merits, irrespective of Oftel’s decision upon the complaint, and is not constrained by the limited judicial review test which the High Court would apply in hearing a statutory appeal under the Telecommunications Act 1984. John Pluthero, chief executive of Energis, said: "This shows the determination in our fight to ensure fair pricing for all customers in order to speed up the roll out of broadband in Britain and end BT’s stranglehold on the wholesale broadband market. Our new complaint carries more weight under the Competition Act 1998 and will ensure that Oftel’s decision is fully scrutinised. We urge Oftel to examine the evidence in light of our new complaint and impose a swift and full price reduction upon BT’s Datastream." |
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