Swisscom Wins Appeal as Court Overturns CHF 18 Million Antitrust Fine
Swisscom has won its appeal at Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court against an antitrust ruling over its fiber-network expansion plans, Dow Jones Newswires reported on October 14.
The court said late Tuesday that there was no breach of competition law by Swisscom's network expansion, as the company does not have a dominant position on the relevant market. It overturned a Swiss Competition Commission (Comco) ruling that had imposed obligations on the company and a fine of 18 million Swiss francs ($21.6 million).
The case stemmed from Swisscom's fiber-optic expansion plans set out at the beginning of 2020, which prompted Comco to open an investigation and issue precautionary measures at the end of that year. In December 2023, the watchdog concluded Swisscom had abused its market dominance and imposed the fine. The Federal Administrative Court found that Swisscom did not hold a dominant position on the specific market in question. The judgment may still be appealed to Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court.
Swisscom said it remains committed to advancing its fiber rollout at pace and will analyze the judgment's potential implications for the further expansion of its infrastructure, adding that the group's 2026 outlook is unchanged. Comco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The dispute centred on the technology Swisscom introduced in 2020, under which a feed line is laid as far as the street manhole, where the signal is then distributed to households — meaning competitors can no longer lease end-to-end lines; the Competition Commission had halted the roll-out with interim measures.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 瑞士电信在苏黎世的办公楼（示意）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Choinowski 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权
