Morocco: ordered to pay $634.5 million to Inwi for unfair competition, Maroc Telecom wants to appeal
January 31st 2024
The Rabat commercial court ordered, on Monday January 29, the telecommunications company Maroc Telecom to pay compensation of 6.36 billion dirhams ($634.5 million) to its competitor Wana Corporate (Inwi) for competition practices. unfair. The historic operator announced in a press release published the same day that it will appeal this verdict as soon as it is notified.
This decision follows an action brought by Inwi in 2021, on the grounds that Maroc Telecom had unfairly restricted the company’s access to fixed telephony customers from 2013. The telecoms operator had claimed 6.85 billion dirhams as compensation. compensation.
The dispute which has opposed Maroc Telecom and Inwi for almost a decade is linked to the unbundling of local optical fiber loops and sub-loops. Accused of confiscating these infrastructures, the historic operator believes that they are the fruit of its investments and refuses to comply with the regulations for sharing telecoms infrastructures in force since June 2014.
In 2016, Inwi filed a complaint with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) claiming that Maroc Telecom had not fairly implemented local loop unbundling. Maroc Telecom was fined 3.3 billion dirhams for anti-competitive practices in 2020. In February 2022, the regulator imposed another fine of 2.45 billion on the telecoms company for similar reasons.
Furthermore, the Moroccan Court of Auditors considers that Maroc Telecom’s monopoly on fixed Internet (ADSL) harms the development of online services, in particular due to the absence of competition. From 1999 to 2017, the number of fixed line subscribers increased from 1.5 million to around 1.8 million subscribers, an increase of 20% in 18 years. In September 2023, the number of landline subscribers increased to 2.78 million.
If Maroc Telecom agrees to unbundle its infrastructure, this would allow its competitors to rent its copper telephone lines to be able to offer their own ADSL services to customers. Such an initiative should guarantee more choice to subscribers. However, it will reduce Maroc Telecom’s revenues in this segment.
At the end of the third quarter of 2023, Maroc Telecom controlled 65.22% of the national fixed telephone subscriber base compared to 20.86 for Orange and 13.92% for Inwi, according to ANRT.
Source: Agency EcoFin
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