26 January 04: Freeserve appeals against Oftel's margin squeeze decision in UK broadband market.
Freeserve.com has launched an appeal against Oftel's 20 November decision that British Telecom has not been engaged in a margin squeeze in the UK's residential broadband market. Oftel was ordered by the Competition Appeals Tribunal to reconsider Freeserve's predatory pricing complaint on 16 April 03. It did so by re-examining BT's "business case" on the basis of information available at the time of its previous decision in May 02. Freeserve believes that Oftel's approach is "fundamentally flawed on factual, legal and methodological bases," and inconsistent with the European Commission's approach to assessing anticompetitive pricing in the Deutsche Telekom and Wanadoo cases.
Freeserve's original complaint alleged that BT was conducting 'an orchestrated campaign of anticompetitive behaviour, aimed at achieving dominance in the market for retail broadband (ADSL) services,' in breach of the Competition Act. Market Analysis was retained by Freeserve in April 03 to provide expert economic advice in the case and will continue to assist throughout the appeal.
For more information see: www.catribunal.org.uk