France Telecom gets Mobilcom suit
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Insolvency administrators for the ex-boss of German phone firm Mobilcom sue France Telecom for $5.74bn (4.26bn euros; Â£2.99bn) in damages.
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The French government is looking to raise up to â¬5.8bn to help pay its debts by selling some of its France Telecom shares. As this will reduce its shareholding to just over 40 per cent, the move will allow
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(InfoWorld) - Europe's second highest court threw out an appeal by France TÃ©lÃ©comÂ of the European Commission's 2003 antitrust ruling against the firm on Tuesday, ordering it to pay the â¬10.35 million ($12.97 million) fine. The Commission found Wanadoo, France TÃ©lÃ©com's Internet subsidiary, guilty of effectively shutting out competitors from the lucrative high-speed Internet market by setting its prices artificially low. France TÃ©lÃ©com appealed the decision claiming it wasn't a dominant player at the time. Under E.U. law, predatory pricing, when a firm deliberately makes a loss in order to deter others from entering the market, is only illegal when carried out by dominant firms. Tuesday's ruling strengthens the Commission's hand in dealing with other competition abuses in the telecom market. "The Commission is delighted with this ruling," said Jonathan Todd, the regulator's spokesman on competition issues. Since the 2003 antitrust ruling, the French market for ADSLÂ has grown enormously. "The French market has become one of the most competitive in Europe, thanks to the European Commission," Todd said. The Commission began investigating Wanadoo in July 1999 during an inquiry within the E.U. into the provision of local loop access services and use of the residential local loop. Fourteen months later, the regulator opened a formal probe into the French company, examining the prices Wanadoo charged its residential customers in France for high-speed Internet access. The Commission found that the predatory prices charged by Wanadoo for its eXtense and Wanadoo ADSL services did not enable it to cover its variable costs until August 2001 or to cover its full costs between then and October 2002 as part of a plan to preempt the market in high-speed Internet access during a key phase in its development. The Commission concluded thatÂ this conduct constituted an abuse of its dominant position in the French market for residential high-speed Internet access. The court found that Wanadoo had eight times the number of ADSL subscribers than its closest competitor during the period in question. That and its link with France TÃ©lÃ©com, the incumbent telecommunications operator in France, "conferred on it advantages over its competitors," the court said. France TÃ©lÃ©com said it retains its right to appeal to the European Court of Justice, the Union's top court, but no decision to appeal had been made on Tuesday.
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France Telecom reported third quarter operational earnings of 4.86 billion euros (6.2 billion dollars), up 3.9 percent from the same period last year.
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A US court rules Microsoft must pay phone equipment firm Alcatel-Lucent $1.52bn (Â£777m) for infringing patents.
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Nokia Corp. said Thursday it has filed patent infringement complaints against Vitelcom of Spain over Nokia&#39;s GSM and GPRS technologies.
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France Telecom said on Thursday it had been picked by Apple to launch its iPhone handset in France.
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France has millions of DSL customers, who pray nothing goes wrong. High-tech service in France is like service in a Parisian cafe -- intermittent and snooty.
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A French film company filed a lawsuit against Google in the Paris Commercial Court, charging the search giant with copyright infringement.
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Company is latest phone giant to file suit to stop data brokers from fraudulently obtaining customer information.
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France's rail operator SNCF may face a multi-million dollar lawsuit after being accused of cooperating with the pro-Nazi Vichy regime during World War II.
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PARIS / LONDON: France said on Wednesday it will sell up to 12.1% of France Telecom to raise â¬5.8 billion ($6.9bn) and help cut national debt in Europeâs largest placing in four years.
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The telecom, which holds billions of dollars worth of wireless spectrum, has until mid-October to file its reorganization plan.
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The French telecommunications operator France Telecom wants to buy the 46 percent of business telecom-services unit Equant it does not already own, marking another step in its general integration strategy.
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Rossi, contatti anche con France Telecom e Deutsche Telekom
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A French lawyer acting for 100 small shareholders said on Monday he had sued French Societe Generale  over the way it unbundled billions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent share deals earlier this week.
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Europeans are paying high prices to send cell-phone text messages or use mobile Internet services outside their own country, the EU's telecoms chief said Thursday, just months after the EU capped roaming charges for calls.