The Competition Tribunal ruled in favor of the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office, in a lawsuit against Radio Valparaíso Limitada, Transco S.A., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Ignacia Limitada, Radio Corporación S.A., Inversiones San José Limitada, Altronix Comunicaciones Limitada, Empresa Nacional de Transmisiones y Duplexiones Limitada, Bío Bío Comunicaciones S.A., Cristián Wagner Muñoz and Claudio Toro Arancibia. The defendants had celebrated agreements between competitors, with the object of restricting or eliminating competition in diverse tenders for FM radio concessions in different zones of the country, in the period between October 2007 and October 2009.
The Competition Tribunal considered that these agreements had the objective of suppressing or altering the competitive process within each one of the public tenders, and by this, altered the price in which each concession was allocated. This, together with a series of collusion facilitating elements in the industry, allowed the practice of assigning “application rights” to be common between operators.
The Tribunal concluded that collusive actions were proved; those actions were destined to allocate and pre-assign the results of tenders for FM radio frequencies in Iquique, Antofagasta, La Serena, Los Vilos, Pichidangui, Llay Llay, Pichilemu, Alerce and Coyhaique, in the first three quarters of 2007.
The Court imposed the following fines: Corporación de Radio Valparaíso Limitada, 200 Annual Tributary Units or UTA (approximately US$ 178,000); Transco S.A., 1 UTA (approximately US$ 900); Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Ignacia Limitada, 1 UTA (approximately US$ 900); Radio Corporación S.A., 5 UTA (approximately US$ 4,500); Inversiones San José Limitada, 10 UTA (approximately US$ 9,000); Altronix Comunicaciones Limitada, 5 UTA (approximately US$ 4,500); Empresa Nacional de Transmisiones y Duplexiones Limitada, 5 UTA (approximately US$ 4,500); Cristián Wagner Muñoz, 200 UTA (approximately US$ 178,000); and Claudio Toro Arancibia, 200 UTA (approximately US$ 178,000). These were the máximum fines that the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office had asked for in the conciliation agreements between the parties.
Bío Bío Comunicaciones S.A., who did not reach a conciliation agreement with the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office, had to pay a fine of 5 UTA (approximately US$ 4,500). Bío Bío Comunicaciones S.A. also has to: a) refrain from participating in the conducts for which it has been judged in this decisión, and b) establish internal protocoles, directed to its owners, stockholders, executives and employees, in order for them to disincentive any conduct that might be deemed contrary to free competition.