Broadband: SDE opens lawsuit against anticompetitive practices by Oi

After enduring a heavy pressure from consumer agencies, according to their request to eliminate rules that impose quality targets for the provision of broadband service, the Oi, now faces problems with the government.

The Secretariat Economic Rights (SDE) of the Ministry of Justice, through the Department of Economic Protection and Defence, decided on Tuesday (14/2), the operator immediately stop practicing discriminatory and anticompetitive conductagainst competitors in the market of providing broadband internet access.

The office found ample evidence of direction of the offer of providers by Oi attendantsat the time of sale of broadband Internet service. The Oi would be directingcustomers to hire the service provider Oi, free of charge, omitting information that customers could contract with other providers, including paid. The complaint wasmade ​​by the Brazilian Internet (Abranet) and the company Universo Online SA (UOL).


This procedure would also because of the partnership Provider Zero Price (ZPP).Through this partnership, providers wishing to provide service for central sales of Oimust be free, joining the conditions imposed by it. This approach excludes the choice of the consumer the possibility to hire any paid or free service provider who has notjoined the partnership. The study also found strong potential anti-competitive in certain aspects of the partnership PPZ, such as the mandatory sharing ofcompetitively sensitive information between companies, as the customer base.

Were observed also evidence of discriminatory practices against the provider UOL,as well as creating difficulties for users of this provider seeking to hire the broadband service Oi Thus, SDE has established a series of immediate measures to be met HiGroup the goal is to preserve competition in the provision of internet access,keeping, however, the possibility of free ISP.

In thirty days, Oi must prove that the measures imposed were fully adotas. If you have not been, the company must pay a fine of $ 100,000 per day. In addition to preventive measures, SDE initiated the administrative process to investigate possibleanticompetitive conduct in partnership PPZ. At the end of the investigation, the officesends the administrative process for the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade).