The Swiss Competition Commission (hereinafter “COMCO”) has announced that it opened an investigation against the Swiss telecommunications company Swisscom (Switzerland) AG (hereinafter “Swisscom”). According to the COMCO, there would be indications that Swisscom is abusing its market position in the field of broadband connections.

The COMCO suspects Swisscom to presumably have charged too high the price in various calls for tender during several projects for the networking of different company locations. Swisscom’s competitors, i.e. other telecommunications companies, depend on Swisscom’s network infrastructure in order to realise such projects. According to the indications of the COMCO, Swisscom would charge too highly for the provision of its network to its competitors, having the effect that the latter wouldn’t be able to submit a competitive bid. In the investigation, the COMCO will examine these indications.

The COMCO has already sanctioned Swisscom for analogous behaviour in the tender for the networking of the offices and shops of the Swiss post (Die Schweizerische Post AG): In the year 2015, the COMCO fined Swisscom CHF 7’916’438 and concluded that the telecommunications company is dominant on the market for broadband connections for business customers. Pursuant to the COMCO’s decision, Swisscom abused this position in this tender in order to hinder competitors and to impose unreasonably high prices. Following COMCO’s analysis, Swisscom won the tender because the company offered a price that was approximately 30% lower than the tenders of its competitors who are dependent on Swisscom’s upstream services. Swisscom submitted a claim before the Federal Administrative Court against this decision. The case is still pending.