The Supreme Administrative Court has overturned the lower Administrative Court’s ruling by ordering it to accept for consideration the petition by five consumers, seeking the revocation of the telecom regulator’s consent for the merger of CP Group’s True and Telenor’s DTAC.
The Supreme Administration Court ruled that, despite the submission of the petition being outside the permissible period, the case concerns public interest and, as such, the Administrative Court has the power to accept the petition.
According to the petition, the consumer’s group, who claim they are subscribers of the Advance Wireless Network, a subsidiary of Advance Info Service, and True Move H Universal Communications (True Move) and are affected by the merger, which will result in higher service charges.
They also claim that the merger will result in fewer players in the telecom market and possible market control in the future.
The Supreme Administrative Court concurred that telecom service is a basic service for the public and, because of the restrictive nature of the limited telecom spectrum and the high investment costs, there are limited number of service providers.
The merger of service providers, which appears to be duopolistic in nature, will affect free and fair competition and will have widespread repercussions on subscribers and, therefore, the petition is beneficial to the public as a whole, the Supreme Administrative Court said.
