TIRANA, Feb. 14 – The Albanian Competition Authority announced on Friday that it officially suspended the price increase of new monthly packages offered by the three mobile service companies, ‘Vodafone Albania’, ‘Telekom Albania’ and ‘Albtelecom’, as well as launched an investigation under the suspicion that the companies struck a secret deal with each other. As a result, the three companies were quick to lower the prices in accordance with the Authority’s decision.
The Competition Authority explained that it had received notice of price changes in the prepaid monthly packages by two of the three companies operating in the market, as well as by citizens and the Albanian Consumer Center. The latter claimed that “mobile companies have raised prices unjustifiably without informing mobile phone customers and to the detriment of their economic interests.
Given the situation, the Authority stated that it had decided to monitor the market regarding the price of the monthly packages launched by mobile operators ‘Vodafone Albania’, ‘Telekom Albania’ and ‘Albtelecom’. Based on a comparison between the new packages and the existing ones, it was noticed that all three mobile operators, as of the end of January, “have launched the new standard 30 day prepaid packages with an increase in price of 200 lek, and have increased the minimum recharge value by 100 lek, from 100 lek to 200 lek. ”
In this line, the Competition Authority stated that it was aware it was facing “an emergency due to the risk of causing serious and irreparable damage to competition in this market” and as such it decided to immediately terminate the price rise, as well as launch a preliminary investigation that will last two months, under suspicions that the companies may have acted under the conditions of a secret agreement between them. The suspension of the new mobile packages’ price rise will remain in effect until the investigation is completed.
According to the published Decision, in the event that the companies did not comply with the Albanian Competition Authority’s decision within five days, ‘Vodafone Albania’, ‘Telekom Albania’ and ‘Albtelecom’ would be fined up to 10 percent of their annual turnover and up to 5 percent of the average daily turnover.
