Vodafone loses bid to prevent Telefónica from selling converged packages

Vodafone España has lost its two-year legal bid to prevent rival Telefónica from selling converged packages of fixed and mobile telephony, broadband TV on the grounds that rivals were unable to offer the same services over Telefónica’s network.

Vodafone appealed to the Spanish High Court, the Audencia Nacional, after Competition regulator the CNMC rejected its bid to prevent Telefónica from selling its Movistar Fusión packages of services.

The court rejected Vodafone’s claim that the CNMC’s predecessor, the CMT, had effectively authorised Telefónica’s launch of Movistar Fusión, according to Spanish daily El País.

The court rejected the claim that the CMT had authorised Telefónica to launch Movistar Fusión and said that Telefónica only had an obligation to report new commercial offerings to the regulator without a requirement that it wait for explicit authorisation. 

The CMT reserved the right to intervene a posteriori if it believed competition issues were involved. Vodafone had sought to argue that the regulator’s inaction amounted to an effective authorisation of Fusión.