Full cost for shared support: “Mykolaivoblenergo” fined for abuse
The company must cease the violation and remedy its consequences
Yesterday, October 15, the Administrative Board of the Southern Interregional Territorial Branch of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine fined Mykolaivoblenergo JSC UAH 68,000. Charging a fee for using power line poles was found to constitute an abuse of a monopoly, or dominant, position in the market. According to southmtv.amcu.gov.ua.
The case was considered following an inspection of compliance with competition law in the infrastructure access market. The AMCU experts identified two violations:
- Mykolaivoblenergo failed to meet the deadlines for considering a request from a communications operator seeking a recalculation of the fee for placing equipment on power poles.
- The company violated the prescribed procedure for allocating this fee among several users of the poles.
The law stipulates that when two, three, or more electronic communications operators use the same power line pole, the cost of access must be divided among them in proportion to the number of users. Therefore, each operator must pay its respective share, rather than the full cost of access.
However, according to the Antimonopoly Committee, because of Mykolaivoblenergo’s actions, operators that shared power poles paid, or were required to pay, the full cost instead of their respective shares for a certain period. This resulted in unjustified additional financial costs for communications companies.
In addition to paying the fine, Mykolaivoblenergo was ordered to stop the violation and remedy its consequences. The company has three months from the date it receives the AMCU decision to comply.
