Chile: Virgin Mobile denounces competitors for unfair practices

Virgin Mobile’s new Chilean venture has filed a complaint with Chile’s competition authorities, accusing incumbents Claro, Entel, Falabella and WOM of engaging in product bundling of mobile devices and contracts, which violates the rules established by the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications.

Virgin’s Chile boss, Juan Antonio Etcheverry, said that these contracts, although signed through retail vendors, should “be the responsibility of operators”, who are forbidden from “bundling a service contract with the sale of devices.”

Mr. Etcheverry criticised what he considered a “rather slow” response from the Telecommunications authorities to these episodes, which he insisted represent effective barriers to any real competition. Chile’s competition and economic watchdog, the FNE, recently admitted to having begun an investigation into the mobile phone sale market, in order to determine the presence of any restrictions or barriers to competition.

Source: Telesemana

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