Telefonica, Portugal Telecom Fined $105 Million by EU Agency
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Telefonica SA and Portugal Telecom SGPS SA, the biggest telephone companies in Spain and Portugal, were fined 79 million euros ($105 million) by European Union regulators for agreeing not to compete in each other’s home country.
The European Commission told Telefonica to pay 66.9 million euros and fined Portugal Telecom 12.3 million euros for an illegal non-compete contract clause, regulators said in an e-mailed statement today. The companies agreed not to rival each other in Spain and Portugal when Telefonica decided to buy Portugal Telecom’s stake in Brazil’s Vivo Participacoes SA in September 2010. They ended the pact in February 2011.