Switzerland's Competition Commission has fined telecommunications group Swisscom CHF71.8m (€64m/$72.5m) for abusing its dominant position in live sports broadcasting on pay television.
Swisscom has vowed to lodge an appeal against the ruling with the Federal Administrative Court and, if necessary, the Federal Supreme Court.
“The Swisscom group with its subsidiaries, CT Cinetrade and Teleclub, holds a dominant position, particularly with respect to live broadcasting of Swiss football and ice hockey championship games on pay-television,” the regulator said. “Swisscom has abused this position against competing TV platform operators in order to restrain competitors in platform competition.”
Last July, the regulator said that Swisscom must provide all television platforms in Switzerland with equivalent Teleclub sports programming under non-discriminatory conditions.