Telecom operators were accused of too high rates for mass SMS-mailing
The FAS Russia initiated cases against the four largest telecom operators in Russia:
Operators did not comply with the antimonopoly authority in the 14-day period warning about the elimination of discriminatory conditions. Discrimination lies in the fact that operators have recently constantly increased tariffs for commercial SMS-mailing on their subscriber base. So, banks with state participation pay about 30 kopecks for such mailings, and take 1.5 rubles from commercial banks .
In December 2017 - March 2018, operators raised the rates for advertising mailings by about half, and by SMS about banking transactions - about three times, Andrei Yemelin, chairman of the National Financial Market Council , told Vedomosti.
Earlier, the FAS Russia issued warnings to the “big four” on termination of actions, which contain signs of violation of antitrust laws, the press release said . In the actions of telecom operators, the FAS Russia sees signs of a violation of Clause 8 of Part 1 of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition, expressed in the creation of discriminatory conditions under which the users of SMS sending services (banks) are placed in an unequal position. In addition, VimpelCom has banned the possibility of transliterating SMS messages from Cyrillic to Latin, which can lead to a 2-fold increase in the cost of sending, while the operator’s actions are not justified in any way, the FAS said. This is qualified under clause 3 of part 1 of article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition.
Meetings of the commissions for consideration of cases will be held approximately in September.
The banks themselves, meanwhile, are looking for alternative ways of communication. For example, commercial mailings in Viber cost approximately 20–30% cheaper than SMS.
- PJSC "VimpelCom",
- MTS PJSC,
- PJSC "MegaFon",
- LLC T2 Mobile.
Operators did not comply with the antimonopoly authority in the 14-day period warning about the elimination of discriminatory conditions. Discrimination lies in the fact that operators have recently constantly increased tariffs for commercial SMS-mailing on their subscriber base. So, banks with state participation pay about 30 kopecks for such mailings, and take 1.5 rubles from commercial banks .
In December 2017 - March 2018, operators raised the rates for advertising mailings by about half, and by SMS about banking transactions - about three times, Andrei Yemelin, chairman of the National Financial Market Council , told Vedomosti.
Earlier, the FAS Russia issued warnings to the “big four” on termination of actions, which contain signs of violation of antitrust laws, the press release said . In the actions of telecom operators, the FAS Russia sees signs of a violation of Clause 8 of Part 1 of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition, expressed in the creation of discriminatory conditions under which the users of SMS sending services (banks) are placed in an unequal position. In addition, VimpelCom has banned the possibility of transliterating SMS messages from Cyrillic to Latin, which can lead to a 2-fold increase in the cost of sending, while the operator’s actions are not justified in any way, the FAS said. This is qualified under clause 3 of part 1 of article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition.
Meetings of the commissions for consideration of cases will be held approximately in September.
The banks themselves, meanwhile, are looking for alternative ways of communication. For example, commercial mailings in Viber cost approximately 20–30% cheaper than SMS.