Morocco: Inwi has decided to end its legal battle against Maroc Telecom
February 24th 2020
On the invitation of its majority shareholder, the royal holding company Al Mada, the board of directors of the mobile operator Wana, better known as the Inwi sales representative, decided to end the legal battle engaged since March 2018 against the historic operator Maroc Telecom for unfair competition.
The decision of Inwi, which has always criticized its big rival for blocking unbundling, comes a few days after the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ANRT) sanctioned Maroc Telecom with a fine of 3.3 billion dirhams (310.2 million euros). The telecoms regulator accuses the public telecoms company of blocking competition on fixed broadband since 2013.
The backward movement of Inwi seems to translate the confidence found in the ANRT which had really not any more, in the past, stopped the anticompetitive acts of Maroc Telecom, to reassure.
The timid reaction of the telecoms regulator to Maroc Telecom’s refusal to apply its new regulatory decisions, on unbundling, taken in December 2014; the multiple formal notices blithely trampled by Maroc Telecom; verbal contests between the incumbent operator and the telecoms regulator; had finally comforted the competitors in the option of a court battle, obviously more fair.
The fine served to Maroc Telecom by the ANRT, which demonstrates the rediscovered power of the telecoms regulator, clearly indicates to Inwi that the sanction of the incumbent operator that he sought before the courts and which costs him legal costs which can be judiciously invested elsewhere no longer exists. The real arbiter of the telecoms game has finally taken responsibility and Wana says he is confident in the prospects for consolidation and development of the telecommunications sector.
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