Romania’s Competition Council starts investigation on possible abuse by Orange

Romania’s Competition Council has started an investigation on a possible dominant position abuse by Orange Romania, the biggest local mobile carrier. “The investigation refers to a possible discriminating treatment by Orange Romania in its relations to the companies active in the SMS micropayments market and SMS advertising market,” the Competition Council announced in a press release on Monday, April 4. The competition inspectors have picked up documents from orange Romania’s headquarters and from local SMS payment processing firms to look for evidence for their case. According to the Competition Council, these unannounced inspections are just a preliminary phase in the investigation. The institution can’t yet make any assessment on whether Orange Romania and the other investigated companies are guilty or not. Orange Romania is the leading mobile carrier in Romania, with over 10 million clients and EUR 950 million revenues in 2015. Orange sees higher revenues in Romania editor@romania-insider.com