National Competition Law Report – Q1 2008 - Switzerland

Annual Report

The FCC published its 2007 annual report on the Internet. Fourty-five concentrations were notified, out of which thirty-nine were cleared during the first stage investigation.

The FCC has imposed direct administrative fines for the first time since it received the authority to punish competition law violations directly, in effect since 1 April 2004 (with a one-year grace period in some cases). On 5 February 2007, the FCC issued a decision assessing the fine against Swisscom Mobile for abuse of dominant position in the call termination charges market at CHF 333 million. The FCC fined PubliGroupe CHF 2.5 million, having determined that PubliGroupe held a dominant position in the market for the selling and placement of advertisements in the printed media. These decisions are currently the subject of an appeal to the Federal Administrative Court.