The Internet Association of Ukraine (InAU) has sent a letter to the Antimonopoly Committee and a number of other state institutions regarding the study of the cost of fixed access and mobile services in order to stop cross-subsidization.
The letter states that dumping of Internet access services and cross-subsidization of fixed access at the expense of mobile communications has a negative impact on competition and on the activities of electronic communications operators, and, in addition, leads to a decrease in tax revenues to the State Budget of Ukraine.
The InAU has repeatedly appealed to the AMCU with a proposal to ensure that certain large operators comply with the principles of economic competition in this area.
“In particular, this appeal: No. 149 of 03.10.2018 regarding signs of unfair competition of Kyivstar PrJSC, No. 62 of 01.06.2020 regarding signs of unfair competition in the actions of Kyivstar PrJSC in Mariupol, No. 87 of 13.07.2020 No. 87 on the signs of unfair competition in the actions of Kyivstar in Kropyvnytskyi, No. 92 of 22.07.2020 on the signs of violation of the legislation on the protection of economic competition in the actions of Kyivstar and Volya-Cable LLC in Cherkasy,” the letter says.
This time the InAU proposes:
- to provide information on the results of the AMCU’s research on previous appeals of the InAU;
- to conduct a study to analyze the cost of fixed-line Internet access and mobile services in order to identify and stop cases of cross-subsidization by electronic communications operators of fixed-line Internet access services at the expense of mobile services and relevant schemes to reduce tax payments through such cross-subsidization.
“The issue of dumping (unreasonably low) tariffs for Internet access services remains relevant today, especially by entities that have the ability to cross-subsidize fixed-line Internet access services at the expense of, for example, mobile services, and when the scale of the service provider’s activities allows it. Such actions have a negative impact on competition and on the activities of Internet access providers that provide only one service and do not have a significant scale,” the InAU believes.
