French Competition Watchdog Rejects Complaint Against Orange

The French competition authority published a ruling on the complaint against Orange made last year by rival operators grouped in the AOTA association. While rejecting the case, the watchdog said that its initial assessment found areas of potential concern, which justified the start of a further exploratory investigation into fibre access within the B2B telecom market. This probe will look for evidence of anti-competitive practices and could lead to the opening of a litigation case.

The main reason behind the rejection of AOTA’s complaint lies in the definition of what Orange provides to alternative operators. The watchdog has come to the conclusion that it is not currently possible to characterise Orange’s FTTP network as critical infrastructure. This is mainly because the evidence being supplied is insufficient to prove that access to an active fibre product from Orange is indispensable to compete in the market in question.

As an additional element, the authority said that FTTP networks, including the one owned by Orange, are still under deployment and noted that describing them as an essential facility seems premature.―Telecompaper