Competitions Court confirms €84 million fine for MEO

Portugal’s Competitions Court (Tribunal de Concorrência) has today confirmed a fine in the sum of €84 million imposed by the competitions authority (Autoridade de Concorrência) on telecoms operator MEO in December 2020 for operating a cartel with NOWO. The court has dismissed a ‘request’ by MEO to challenge the ruling as “totally groundless”. The decision acknowledges the AdC contention that an anticompetitions agreement celebrated between MEO and NOWO in 2016 “implied price increases and a reduction in the quality of services provided, as well as geographical restrictions on those same services, which penalised consumers throughout national territory”.