05 March 2024

Maroc Telecom has been ordered to pay compensation of 6.36 billion dirhams to Wana Corporate (Inwi) for unfair competition practices. Maroc Telecom plans to appeal the verdict.

This decision follows an action brought by Inwi in 2021, on the grounds that Maroc Telecom had unfairly restricted the company’s access to fixed telephony customers from 2013. The operator had claimed 6.85 billion dirhams as compensation.

The dispute is linked to the unbundling of local optical fibre loops and sub-loops. Accused of confiscating these infrastructures, Maroc Telecom believes that they are the fruit of its investments and refuses to comply with the regulations for sharing telecoms infrastructures in force since June 2014.

In 2016, Inwi filed a complaint with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) claiming that Maroc Telecom had not fairly implemented local loop unbundling. Maroc Telecom was fined 3.3 billion dirhams for anti-competitive practices in 2020. In February 2022, the regulator imposed another fine of 2.45 billion on the telecoms company for similar reasons.

Additionally, the Moroccan Court of Auditors considers that Maroc Telecom’s monopoly on fixed internet (ADSL) harms the development of online services due to the absence of competition. If Maroc Telecom agrees to unbundle its infrastructure, this would allow its competitors to rent its copper telephone lines to be able to offer their own ADSL services to customers. Such an initiative should guarantee more choice to subscribers.