Huge fine haunts Telkom
TELKOM could still face a R5-billion fine for anti-competitive behaviour, despite a Pretoria High Court ruling in the operator’s favour last week.
The court ruled on Friday that the Competition Commission could not refer a complaint against Telkom to the Competition Tribunal.
The commission has vowed to continue its pursuit of Telkom even if an appeal application to the high court is unsuccessful.
Thulani Kunene, head of the enforcements and exemptions division at the commission, yesterday said: “We will still go back and investigate the matter in a manner that satisfies the courts.”
The commission’s referral was blocked on the grounds that it was made out of time (after the prescribed one-year period).
The commission also made the blunder of not consulting the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) on the issue.
Internet service providers have accused Telkom of charging them more for bandwidth than it charged its own Internet division, and refusing to supply some ISPs any bandwidth at all.
Two months ago Telkom filed a law suit against the competition commission with the high court, claiming that the commission had no jurisdiction to prosecute the state-owned telecommunications monopoly over competition matters.
It said that, based on the old Telecommunications Act, which was in effect when the commission sent a referral of prosecution to the tribunal in 2004, only Icasa had jurisdiction.
The Electronic Communications Act of 2005 has since afforded the commission rights to handle all competition matters.
Telkom said it felt ‘‘vindicated” by Justice Claasen’s decision to block the tribunal referral.
Mark Furman, head of legal services at Internet Solutions (one of the initial complainants against Telkom) said that last week’s win was only a minor setback in the prosecution of Telkom.
He said: ‘‘There are still other matters relating to Telkom’s anti-competitive practices under investigation and those will go ahead.
‘‘The court’s decision was not based on the question of jurisdiction, but the fact that the report that the commission used was overly biased against Telkom.
Kunene said: ‘‘Although the process was called into question, the merits of the case still stand. Telkom will still have to answer for itself in the tribunal.”
Telkom stands to be fined 10 percent of its R50-billion revenue.
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