Mobistar welcomes the judgment of the Brussels ...

Brussels, 27 February 2015 - Mobistar welcomes the judgment of the Court of Appeal in legal proceedings that it conducted together with the Base/KPN Group against Proximus concerning abusive pricing practices in the late 90s - early 2000s. The judgment confirms that Proximus held a dominant position on the market for mobile telephony and might have abused this position.

The Court of Appeal modifies the mission of the experts that were previously appointed by the Brussels Commercial Court and enlarges the number of abuses that must be examined by the experts.^[1]The Court also clarifies the method that must be used thereto. The Court further provides that Proximus must bear half of the advanced costs for carrying out the expertise. The final expert report must be submitted by the end of March 2016. The Court postponed the evaluation of the damage potentially incurred to a later stage of the proceedings.

Background

In March 2004, Mobistar joined the court action launched by Base/KPN Group against Proximus for abuses of dominant position, in particular the charging of very low tariffs for calls between its own customers while it charged (i) very high rates to other operators and (ii) very high tariffs for calls to the customers of its competitors.

In May 2007, the Brussels Commercial Court delivered an interlocutory judgment confirming Proximus' dominance on the mobile telephony market and its possible abuses on that market. The Brussels Commercial Court appointed two experts to assess the existence of margin squeeze practices and the anti-competitive effects of the exploitation of the network effects. The experts were also requested to estimate the related damages that were incurred.

The expert proceedings ordered by the Brussels Commercial Court were stopped in 2012 following the request by Proximus to replace the experts. New experts were appointed in 2014 and started their mission. These expert proceedings were put on hold awaiting the final judgment of the Court of Appeal.

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^[1] Apart from the abuses concerning margin squeeze and exploitation of network effects, the experts must also examine the abuses relating to loyalty rebates and predatory pricing.

Mobistar Investor Relations

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Source: Mobistar via Globenewswire

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