{"id":13265,"date":"2012-08-07T14:13:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T12:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/update-1-s-africa-fines-telkom-55-mln-for-bullying\/"},"modified":"2012-08-07T14:13:23","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T12:13:23","slug":"update-1-s-africa-fines-telkom-55-mln-for-bullying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-s-africa-fines-telkom-55-mln-for-bullying\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-S.Africa fines Telkom $55 mln for &quot;bullying&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Fine of R449 mln vs R3.5 bln originally sought<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Regulator says Telkom impeded competition<\/p>\n<p> (Recasts, adds analyst comment)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Aug 7 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa on Tuesday<br \/>\nslapped fixed-line operator Telkom with a<br \/>\nlighter-than-expected fine of 449 million rand ($55 million) for<br \/>\nusing its dominant market position to &#8220;bully&#8221; potential<br \/>\ncompetitors.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The result is likely to be seen as a victory for Telkom.<br \/>\nSouth Africa&#8217;s competition watchdog, which first lodged the<br \/>\ncomplaint in 2004, originally sought a fine of 3.5 billion rand,<br \/>\nwhich the struggling company has said would be &#8220;catastrophic&#8221;<br \/>\nand jeopardise its business.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Competition Tribunal, which rules on anti-trust<br \/>\ncomplaints, said Telkom exploited its position as South Africa&#8217;s<br \/>\ndominant player in telecoms to block competition from other<br \/>\nnetwork service providers.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Telkom impeded the growth of its competitors and retarded<br \/>\ninnovation in the market place,&#8221; the Tribunal said, adding that<br \/>\n&#8220;Telkom bullied its downstream competitors into line&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Shares of Telkom, which were down more than 3 percent before<br \/>\nthe release of the judgement, pared losses after and were down<br \/>\n1.1 percent at 17.85 rand at 0843 GMT.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Telkom had to be fined something to make it politically<br \/>\nequitable and for the Competition Tribunal not to be seen as<br \/>\nunfair,&#8221; said Dobek Pater, a telecoms analyst at consultancy<br \/>\nAfrica Analysis.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s probably an optimal way out for all parties.&#8221;<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Fine of R449 mln vs R3.5 bln originally sought * Regulator says Telkom impeded competition (Recasts, adds analyst comment) JOHANNESBURG Aug 7 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa on Tuesday slapped fixed-line operator Telkom with a lighter-than-expected fine of 449 million rand ($55 million) for using its dominant market position to &#8220;bully&#8221; potential competitors. The result [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}