GCRA order against Sure held back until after States debate
AN ORDER requiring Sure to pay back about £115,000 of excessive charges was held back until after a States debate on suspending the competition law in the firm’s favour.
States members agreed to suspend the law last Thursday to allow Sure to take over Airtel-Vodafone in a deal set to hand it an estimated 80% share of the market, but some deputies criticised the move as bad for consumers.
Just three working days later, the Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority published a direction requiring Sure to repay five companies overcharged for leased lines over an 18-month period.
GCRA chief executive Michael Byrne said yesterday that the States debate last week was one factor behind the overcharging announcement not being made until this week.
‘There was a little bit of that,’ said Mr Byrne.
‘Our most-recent board meeting was on 18 September. The board was mindful of the debate coming up in the States.
‘It does not make for a good appearance to look like we’re trying to influence something like that.’
The vote in the States to suspend the competition law means the Sure-Airtel takeover will bypass the GCRA, which would normally have ruled on the deal.
During the States debate, Economic Development was criticised for failing to publish the latest advice on the deal from the GCRA, which had previously raised numerous concerns about the potential effect on the telecoms market and consumers.
A deputy who voted against suspending the competition law, Christopher Le Tissier, said yesterday that there might have been more opposition if Sure’s six-figure overcharges had been known before the debate.
‘It’s a pity this latest revelation didn’t come before the debate as it may have influenced some States members,’ said Deputy Le Tissier.
Economic Development said the GCRA’s ruling on Sure’s overcharging was unrelated to the suspension of the competition law and its takeover of Airtel, and declined to comment further.
The committee’s vice-president, Deputy Steve Falla, who opposed suspending the competition law, said separately that he also did not want to comment on the GCRA’s ruling about Sure’s overcharging.
The suspension of the law in Guernsey has made headlines in Global Competition Review, a news service on anti-trust and competition law.
Its report quoted competition lawyer Brian Sher, who said ‘political override’ of competition law was ‘rare’ and usually reserved for ‘cases of national emergency’.
