The Economic Court has ruled that a "major telecommunication company" pay a fine amounting to EGP 100,000 for refusing to cooperate with the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA), the latter said in an official statement Sunday. The name of the company was not disclosed. The official statement added that the court praised the authority's competence in looking into monopolistic crimes conducted by the telecommunications sector. The company in question appeared before the court, arguing that they did not fall under the jurisdiction of the competition authority, but of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA). "The court rejected this claim, and argued in its ruling that this claim runs contrary to the law, explaining that the jurisdiction of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority is for general crimes related to competition, and this does not restrict the jurisdiction of the Competition Authority," the ECA statement said. Chairman of ECA Mona El-Garf said: "The court's ruling [highlighted] the efforts made by the authority to look into all monopolistic activities in various sectors". In December, the ECA announced that Egypt's three major mobile operators, Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone, had been referred to the prosecutor general by the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA), following charges of engaging in an anti-competitive "cartel agreement".
