Netherlands grills KPN, Vodafone, T-Mobile on price fixing
updated 02:35 pm EST, Tue December 6, 2011
KPN, Vodafone, T-Mobile under investigation
The Dutch competition authority, NMA, searched the offices of wireless providers KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile on Tuesday over alleged price fixing. The three carriers are accused of sharing of market information and cartel prices, Reuters said. The three companies are cooperating with the investigation.
KPN revealed that its main offices were raided at 8:30AM on Tuesday and that five employees are in questioning. The officials were specifically curious about cellphone rate plans along with KPN's sales channels.
According to Dutch broadcaster NOS, the investigations were started by the whistleblowing of a former director at one of the companies and a board member at a telecoms firm.
The same three carriers were recently found guilty in a different price-fixing case that was launched over ten years ago. KPN was fined 7.93 million euros (about $10.6 million), T-Mobile 4.6 million euros ($6.2 million) and Vodafone 3.72 million euros (nearly $5 million).
