CompetitionCO2DDetect abuses of monopoly by operators and concerted practices harmful for consumers

In Bolivia, the Superintendency of Basic Sanitation is empowered to ensure that Drinking Water and Sanitary Sewerage services comply with the anti-monopoly and consumer protection provisions set forth in Law No. 1600 and may take the necessary measures to correct any case of non-compliance. Within this framework, it is stipulated that providers are to align their activities with principles that guarantee open competition, avoiding actions that would impede, restrict or distort it, while prohibiting joint, direct or indirect price-fixing, establishing limitations, distributing production control, markets, supply sources or investment, and developing other similar anti-competitive practices. Abusive practices are also prohibited, such as the direct or indirect imposition of buying or selling prices or other unequitable commercial conditions; the limitation of production, supply sources, markets or technical development to the detriment of consumers; the application of unequal conditions on equivalent operations, representing a disadvantage to clients and users; the conditioning of contract execution to the counterparty’s acceptance of additional obligations that, by virtue of their nature or according to commercial practice, are not inherent to the object of such contracts; and the demand that those requesting the provision of a regulated service become partners or shareholders.

In Chile, the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office is in charge of supervising and verifying the possible existence of anti-competitive practices by sanitary public utilities, and in the event that such situations should be detected, the Prosecutor’s Office may request that the Court for the Defense of Free Competition classify certain services as subject to price-fixing by the Superintendency of Sanitary Services, as long as monopoly-related characteristics are detected.

In Croatia, the Competition Agency ruled on a case involving the company Vodoopskrba i odvodnja d.o.o. from Zagreb. In the proceedings, the agency would decide whether certain services that the company adopted in July 2013 represented an abuse of a dominant position on the relevant public water supply market.

The case started because there was a new provision stating an obligation for water meters installed in old buildings to be connected with the automatic water meter reading (AWMR) network, a system which Vodoopskrba has already introduced in the old buildings. In other words, water meters were a new market for Vodoopskrba, but they were also the sole owners of the AWMR network.

The Competition Agency adopted a decision ordering Vodoopskrba i odvodnja to temporarily cease and-desist to impede other companies in installing telemetric services and preventing final consumers from freely choosing the provider of the services concerned.