Unlawful actions by operators resulted in increased payments for sms-messaging

On 3 April 2017, FAS found that “MegaFon” PJSC, “MTS” PJSC, “VympelCom” PJSC and “T2 Mobile” Ltd. violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

In October 2014 – December 2015 operators of mobile wireless communications introduced the settlement procedure with sms-aggregators for the messaging services from the end-ordering parties to operator networks, according to which the aggregators pay for sms-traffic based on the tariff scale for the volume of every end-customer (introducing client-by-client logging of sms-traffic).

Before introducing client-by-client logging of sms-traffic there was a system of payment settlement based on the overall traffic volume from all end-customers of sms-messaging to the operator network, which allowed a lower tariff for end-customers for sms-messaging based on the tariff scale for the total volume of sms-messages sent by the aggregator to the operator netwrok.

As a result of introducing client-by-client logging of sms-traffic, the tariffs for sending sms-messaged for end-customers increased: by 116% (for the network of “MegaFon” PJSC; by 176% (for the network of “MTS” PJSC), by 77% (for the network of VympelCom” PJSC), by 33% (for the network of “T2 Mobile” Ltd.).

FAS issued a determination to eliminate the violation of the antimonopoly law.