Claro fined for anticompetitive practices

摘要

Ecuador's anti-monopoly agency the Superintendency of Market Power Control revealed on Sunday that it has fined the country's largest cellco by subscribers Conecel (Claro Ecuador) US$138.5 million for "anticompetitive practices." Claro, the local unit of Mexico's America Movil, was fined an amount equal to "10 percent of all company business in 2012," according to the comptroller's statement, following complaints lodged in that year by state-backed rival operator Corporacion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CNT) which alleged "abuse of market power." The Superintendency decided that Claro acted illegally by signing exclusivity contracts with the owners of land used for wireless network towers. Claro has complained that the fine is unjustified and that there were "serious inconsistencies in the process."