Italy: Competition authority fines telecom operator for anti-competitive agreements in fiber development (A514)

On 25 February 2020, the Italian competition authority concluded its investigation against TIM, a telecom and fiber service provider. The investigation found that TIM is guilty of imposing anti-competitive agreements to delay the implementation of "Fiber to the Home" networks across Italy. In particular, TIM did not provide sufficient access to internet and fiber networks in certain areas (defined as "white areas") when public subsidies were absent. The authority found that TIM actively ignored these such areas by not accepting reasonable deals and delaying public biddings for investments. TIM was also been found to offer plans that were below cost to discourage customers from switching to other service providers. These plans included contracts whose duration was judged as excessive. As a result, the competition authority has fined TIM EUR 116 million. The deadline for payment is 1 October 2020.