SEAT PAGINE GIALLE/CECCHI GORI COMMUNICATIONS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
THE COMPETITION AUTHORITY HAS CLEARED TELECOM ITALIA OF NON-COMPLIANCE IN RESPECT OF THE SEAT-CECCHI GORI COMMUNICATIONS ACQUISITION
At its meeting on 28 February 2002, the Competition Authority resolved that, as things presently stand, Telecom Italia had not behaved in a manner that could be considered non-compliant with the conditions imposed for the acquisition by Seat-Pagine Gialle of the TMC and TMC2 networks.
The non-compliance procedure, which began in October, was intended to show whether Telecom Italia had promptly and fully complied with the obligation imposed on it by the Authority on 23 January 2001 to take all the necessary steps to ensure that Telecom Italia did not strengthen its dominant position on the interactive and multimedia services market. The Authority had specifically laid down the condition that Telecom Italia was obliged to give potential competitors access to all its own infrastructure facilities, and to act such that all operators wishing to lay fibre optic cables to supply interactive and multimedia services could do so.
Following complaints from a number of companies operating in the industry, alleging that Telecom was obstructing progress, the Authority began a non-compliance investigation which concluded with the ruling clearing the company of any breach whatsoever.
The facts that emerged in the course of the investigation showed that the delays in implementing the measure imposed by the Authority were due to real difficulties in identifying the measures to be adopted in order to comply with the conditions imposed upon Telecom Italia, as well as objective technical difficulties.
Rome, 2 March 2002