EU Court Rulings Provide Important Message To Irish Telcos On Interaction Between Competition And Regulatory Laws

• Published date: 27 May 2021
• Law Firm: Matheson
• Author: Ms Kate McKenna, Simon Shinkwin and Conor Doyle

The European Court of Justice ("ECJ") has recently delivered two judgements which provide an important message for telecoms businesses operating in Ireland. The first of these rulings confirms that the risk of non-compliance with competition rules is particularly high for telcos in that they may face two fronts of attack from both the European Commission and the Irish Commission for Communications Regulation ("ComReg") for the same suspected anti-competitive behaviour. The second ruling confirms that the risk of telcos falling foul of abuse of dominance rules when dealing with access seekers is significantly higher where the telco is subject to regulatory 'open access' requirements, or has otherwise decided to grant wholesale access, than where the telco has refused to deal with an access seeker (in a non-regulated context).

We briefly consider these rulings from an Irish perspective, as well as pending cases of potential significance.

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