{"id":71503,"date":"2016-06-20T10:29:44","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T10:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=6bbab2881b092b3a17d1532d9afdbcaa"},"modified":"2016-06-20T10:29:44","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T10:29:44","slug":"press-release-cma-determination-published-in-superfast-broadband-appeals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=71503","title":{"rendered":"Press release: CMA determination published in superfast broadband appeals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In January, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT<\/abbr>) referred 2 appeals<\/a> to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA<\/abbr>) over restrictions to the charges BT<\/abbr> is permitted to make for use of its superfast broadband network. The deadline for the determination to be notified to the CAT<\/abbr> is 5 July 2016.<\/p>\n

British Telecommunications plc (BT<\/abbr>) and TalkTalk<\/abbr> Telecom Group plc (TalkTalk<\/abbr>) both appealed to the CAT<\/abbr> following Ofcom\u2019s decision on superfast broadband pricing in March last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BT<\/abbr> is currently the largest retail provider of fibre broadband services over its network, but is required to allow other operators to use its network to sell superfast broadband to consumers under a process known as \u2018virtual unbundled local access\u2019 (VULA).<\/p>\n

The Ofcom pricing rule aims to ensure that BT<\/abbr> maintains a sufficient margin between its wholesale and retail superfast broadband charges, in order to allow other providers to profitably match its prices.<\/p>\n

In its final determination on the BT<\/abbr> appeal published by the CAT<\/abbr> today (and also available on the CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s case page<\/a>), the CMA<\/abbr> dismissed BT<\/abbr>\u2019s challenges in all but one of the issues it was asked to look at. It agreed with BT<\/abbr> that Ofcom had made an error in setting the length of the relevant compliance period and determined that this should be extended to 6 months from the current one month.<\/p>\n

The CMA<\/abbr> dismissed the challenges in TalkTalk<\/abbr>\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

Under the 2003 Communications Act, if decisions by Ofcom are appealed to the CAT<\/abbr> and include any specified price control matters, then these matters must be referred to the CMA<\/abbr> for determination. Both parties therefore sought a reference to the CMA<\/abbr> of the specified price control matters in their respective appeals.<\/p>\n

The determination<\/a> was made by a group of independent panel members supported by a case team of CMA<\/abbr> staff.<\/p>\n

On 24 March 2016, the CAT<\/abbr> handed down its judgment on the appeal on matters other than those that had been referred to the CMA<\/abbr>. The CAT<\/abbr> is required to determine the specified price control matters in accordance with the CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s findings, unless the CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s determination is set aside on judicial review grounds. Further details on the BT<\/abbr><\/a> and TalkTalk<\/abbr><\/a> appeals are available on the CAT<\/abbr> website.<\/p>\n

Notes for editors<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. The CMA<\/abbr> is the UK\u2019s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law.<\/li>\n
  2. Ofcom\u2019s detailed explanation of its superfast broadband decision is set out in \u2018Fixed Access Market Reviews: Approach to the VULA margin<\/a>\u2019.<\/li>\n
  3. The CAT<\/abbr> hears appeals against decisions made by the CMA<\/abbr> and sectoral regulators such as Ofcom.<\/li>\n
  4. Enquiries should be directed to Rory Taylor (rory.taylor@cma.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>, 020 3738 6798)<\/li>\n
  5. For information on the CMA<\/abbr> see our homepage<\/a>, or follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk<\/a>, Flickr<\/a> and LinkedIn<\/a>. Sign up to our email alerts<\/a> to receive updates on regulatory references and appeals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The CMA\u2019s determination in 2 superfast broadband price control appeals has been published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}