Supreme Court Confirms EUR 22 M Fine for Dominant Position of Vodafone Romania

Romania’s Supreme Court confirms the 22 million EUR fine received by Vodafone in 2011 for abuse of dominant position. The fine was applied ten years ago, but the telecom operator appealed the case. The trial, not a difficult one, took a decade to be finished.

Justice in Romania is not famous for its efficiency nor its promptness. It cannot be called otherwise for an appeal over a fine to take ten years to be settled. But this case brings once again to the public attention the problems of the justice system.

Both telecom giants were fined, and both appealed their cases at that time. Yet, Orange received the final decision in 2018, while Vodafone received it only now.

Vodafone is the second mobile operator by the market share in Romania, after Orange. This led to the abuse of the dominant position when, in 2011, both operators refused Netmasters, a limited company, to access their networks.