[November 17, 2009] 'Romanian competiton body opens two cases against operators' Tweet Nov 17, 2009 (DMEUROPE via COMTEX) -- Romania's Competition Council has started two investigations into to the market of prepaid telephone products, local newspaper Daily Business reports. The first one was triggered by a complaint concerning an alleged deal between Orange and some distributors, under which the latter exclusively sell Orange's prepaid products. At the same time, these distributors may be selling products only to specific retailers selected by Orange. In the second case, which was launched on the competition body's own initiative, Romanian mobile operators Orange, Vodafone and Cosmote are being investigated over the creation of a cartel. The body will look into the three operators' possible anticompetitive practices of fixing prices for their distributors. If such practices will be confirmed, the operators risk being fined for their part in the cartel with up to 10 percent of their turnover. In a case opened in 2006, the competition body is also investigating whether Orange, Vodafone and Romtelecom abused their dominant market position on the call termination on fixed/mobile points on their networks. The authority has already carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of telephone operators and at some of their distributors of prepaid mobile telephony. Documents and statements raised in these inspections are currently being analysed by the Romanian authority. Distributed for DMeurope.com via M2 Communications (www.m2.com) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]