Maroc Telecom Accused of Violating Rules of Competition

Maroc Telecom Accused of Violating Rules of Competition
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Maroc Telecom Accused of Violating Rules of Competition

Maroc Telecom Accused of Violating Rules of Competition

Morocco’s National Agency of Telecommunications Regulation (ANRT) has issued its decision in the dispute between telecom operators over access to the local loop unbundling (LLU) and the joint use of high-frequency internet and fixed broadband.

The ANRT said that Maroc Telecom has abused its dominant position in the market by hindering competitors' access to unbundling on its network and the fixed market since 2013.

Maroc Telecom, Morocco's leading operator, has been fined 3.3 billion dirhams ($344 million) for anti-competitive practices, the country’s regulator said on Monday.

The company may face further daily sanctions if it does not comply with the decision, the regulator said, adding that such measures aim to boost competition in fixed broadband.

Maroc Telecom said it would appeal the decision. The fine, to be paid to the state treasury, compares with the $312 million profit reported by Maroc Telecom in H1 2019.

ANRT had urged Maroc Telecom in 2016 to abide by regulations governing local loop unbundling.

Two years later, a rival operator filed a suit against Maroc Telecom, accusing it of breaching competition rules.

Zain subsidiary Inwi (formerly Wana) claimed that Maroc Telecom had hindered its rivals’ access to LLU and fixed broadband since 2013, and following its investigation the ANRT concluded that Maroc Telecom had abused its dominance in the market to this effect.

In 2014, the ANRT issued its guidelines for LLU which obliged Maroc Telecom to host rivals’ equipment in its existing cabinets, as well as build out multi-operator cabinets in future deployments. It was also required to provide wholesale tariffs for other operators using a virtual unbundled local access (VULA) model.

Maroc Telecom will now have to introduce these measures, in addition to paying a fine to the Treasury.

Maroc Telecom, which is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, is 53 percent controlled by the UAE’s Etisalat, with the Moroccan state owning 22 percent.

It operates subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Togo, and the Central African Republic.



French PM Says EU-US Trade Deal an Act of ‘Submission’ and a Dark Day for Europe 

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
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French PM Says EU-US Trade Deal an Act of ‘Submission’ and a Dark Day for Europe 

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)

France called a framework trade deal between the United States and European Union a "dark day" for Europe, saying the bloc had caved in to US President Donald Trump with an unbalanced deal that slaps a headline 15% tariff on EU goods while sparing US imports from any immediate European retaliation.

The criticism from Prime Minister Francois Bayrou followed months of French calls for EU negotiators to take a tougher stance against Trump by threatening reciprocal measures — a position that contrasted with the more conciliatory approaches of Germany and Italy.

"It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission," Bayrou wrote on X of what he called the "von der Leyen-Trump deal".

The high-level French criticism, and President Emmanuel Macron's silence since the deal was signed between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, stood in contrast with the more benign reaction from Berlin and Rome.

French government ministers acknowledged the agreement had some benefits, including exemptions for sectors such as spirits and aerospace, but said it remained fundamentally unbalanced.

"This state of affairs is not satisfactory and cannot be sustained," French European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad said on X, urging the EU to activate its so-called anti-coercion instrument, which would allow for non-tariff retaliation.

Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin criticized the EU's handling of the negotiations, saying the bloc should not have refrained from hitting back in what he described as a power struggle initiated by Trump.

"Donald Trump only understands force," he told France Inter radio. "It would have been better to respond by showing our capacity to retaliate earlier. And the deal could have probably looked different," he added.

Macron had said that the EU should respond in kind if the United States slapped tariffs on EU goods, and apply equivalent measures on US imports into the bloc, in particular on services, in which the US enjoys a surplus with the EU.

But the softer line advocated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose countries are more dependent than France on exports to the US, prevailed.