By Miriam Posada
La Jornada/Monday, 10 Feb 2014
The company Conecel, owned by América Móvil, rejected the fine of 138.5 million dollars that the Superintendency for Control of Market Power of Ecuador imposed on it, on the grounds that Carlos Slim’s firm exercised an “abuse of market power” in 2012, and Slim announced that in his defense he will exercise the legal remedies that the law provides.
In an announcement Conecel indicated that the fine is unjustified and it responds to “a complaint from the state-owned CNT (Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones) with regards to five sites (of the thousands that Conecel leases) in which CNT claims would not have been able to expand their network. In the same areas these five fields are, there are options and alternative fields, equally suitable, in which the required infrastructure could well be installed. Then, there hasn’t been an entry barrier nor competitive constraint for any operator.”
The company that operates in Ecuador as a subsidiary of Claro believes that “the magnitude of the fine is disproportionate, violates the constitutional principle of proportionality, and affects the legal security on which the investment processes are based.”
“Conecel will exercise the resources that the law provides, in order to achieve a resolution according to the law, that ensures due process within a framework of legal security.”
