Competition Authority publishes Vodafone, Aer Lingus decisions

The Competition Authority yesterday introduced a new series of published reasoned decisions on selected closed investigations.

The series is aimed at increasing public awareness of the Authority's work.

The criteria for publication are based on investigations that create precedents, are of public interest and raise complex or interesting issues.

Paul Gorecki, Member of the Authority and Director of the Monopolies Division said the aim is to highlight behaviour that both does and doesn't infringe the competition law. He hopes that it will result in greater legal certainty and lower compliance costs for business.

The first two decisions published yesterday date from 2002 and relate to alleged anti-competitive behaviour contrary to Irish Competition law in both the airline and mobile phones markets.

The issues concern Vodafone's decision to increase mobile phone top-up charges and the Aer Lingus decision to reduce commission payable to travel agents on some of its products.

The Authority's conclusion in these cases was that there was no breach of the law, and the Authority maintains that this illustrates its concern in protecting the consumer and the competitive process, not to protect competitors facing increased competition.