2 February 2015: Telecoms – Overseas Mobile Telephony
Acquisition of SFR by Numericable.
Outremer Telecom (Only) cancels the price increases announced in late 2014 to its customers in La Réunion and Mayotte
This initiative follows the announcement by the Autorité de la concurrence, on 22 January this year,
that it was opening ex officio proceedings to review the conditions governing the divestiture of the Outremer Telecom’s mobile telephony activities (Only).
On 30 October 2014, the Autorité de la concurrence cleared SFR’s acquisition by Numericable, a subsidiary of the Altice Group, subject to several commitments1 . The commitments included the divestiture of Outremer Telecom’s mobile telephony business activities (marketed under the Only brand) in La Réunion and Mayotte. Within the framework of this commitment, Numericable committed to maintain the financial viability, market value and competitiveness of the mobile telephony concerns of Outremer Telecom (Only) until the divestiture.
In late 2014, Outremer Telecom announced that it would increase prices for its main mobile phone offers in La Réunion and Mayotte, with immediate effect for new subscriptions and from 1 January 2015 for ongoing contracts. The RIFE 2h, Trio, Jeune, Next, On, Next2 Illimité offers are concerned.
On 22 January 2015, the Autorité decided to open ex officio proceedings to review the compatibility of this decision with the commitments made by Numericable2 .
Following this decision, Numericable has, on its own initiative, taken measures aimed at correcting these price increases:
- It has cancelled the price increases applied to the services provided to Only subscribers on 1 January 2015;
- Since the increase have already been applied for the month of January, the customers concerned will be refunded;
- Outremer Telecom’s list of offers will once again include the prices that were removed as a result of the price increases. Consequently, it is once again possible to subscribe at these prices and they will exist side-by-side with the new subscription prices.
Further procedures
The Autorité takes note of the corrective measures put into place by Outremer Telecom.
The adoption of these measures does not, however, presume the outcome of the review of Numericable’s compliance with its commitments. The Autorité, which is continuing its review of the case, will issue its decision shortly.
1See Decision 14-DCC-160 and the press release of 27 October 2014
2See the press release of 22 January 2015
Contacts:
Ingalill D’Armaillé -+33(0) 1 55 04 01 82 / Email
Rebecca Hébert - +33 (0) 1 55 04 01 81 / Email