Dawn Raid at Slovak Telekom.

The Commission confirmed on Thursday that it raided Slovak Telekom. It suspects the company of abusing its dominant position, in particular through tying, price squeeze and refusal to deal practices. It is noteworthy that Slovak Telekom has already been fined more than twice by the Slovak national competition authority for violation of Article 82 EC Treaty, and that those fines were annulled in appeal (some of which seem to be still pending). The questions might therefore arise as to how far the Commission's intervention risks being viewed as a double geopardy case or at least as supporting the Slovak authority's failures before national courts....

In any event, this, together with the Commission's action against Slovakia in the postal sector, show that, after a first period of relative minimal application of the competition rules in the new members States, the Commission is now ready to show its teeth to the new EU 12 countries.