Telefonica fined by Spain competition regulator

pain’s competition regulator said Friday that it has fined Telefonica SA 6 million euros ($6.4 million) for breaching terms of its 2015 acquisition of media company DTS, a decision that the Spanish telecommunications company intends to appeal.

Spain’s National Commission on Markets and Competition said one of the commercial packages offered by Telefonica breached the commitments the company made at the time of the acquisition.

The commission said the deal was cleared in 2015 subject to commitments proposed by Telefonica, including that the telecommunications company wouldn’t impose permanence obligations on its pay-TV customers.

A Telefonica spokesman said the company will appeal the fine. The company didn’t breach the terms of the acquisition since there was no permanence requirement linked to pay-TV in its package, the spokesman said. Market Watch