The end of 2010 saw the end of the litigation against the largest mobile operator in Macedonia, T-Mobile. The Supreme Court upheld a decision by the Administrative Court finding that T-Mobile had abused its dominant position in the call termination market. As a result, the Commission for the Protection of Competition fined T-Mobile €785,426. The case arose because T-Mobile charged the caller from the moment when the voicemail box was 'opened' (ie, as soon as the voicemail notification message began), giving the caller no opportunity to choose whether he or she wanted to use the service (ie, by leaving a voicemail message). Moreover, the caller was not warned that he or she would be charged if he or she called a number that was unavailable.
In further news from the commission, in January 2011 it initiated proceedings against City Parking for abuse of a dominant position, on the grounds that City Parking charges unjustifiably high amounts for the reissuance of parking permits which have expired or been stolen.
Finally, two new sets of competition-related guidelines have recently been adopted:
- the Guidelines on Determining the Fines to be Imposed under the Law on Protection of Competition; and
- the Guidelines on Preparing a Non-confidential Version of Decisions of the Commission for the Protection of Competition.
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