It is also a matter of honesty and transparency to find out exactly what had happened in the roaming case. On September 10, 2008 the Commission said that in July 2007 (i.e. after it concluded its investigation) it suspended the proceedings (against the companies overcharging citizens for over a decade violating articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty) for the apparent reason (according to the Commission and against common sense and EU legitimacy) that since a Regulation on this matter entered into effect, “antitrust investigations became superfluous” and regardless if the companies investigated “might or might not have been fined,” that, “would not have an impact on the consumers.” This is a lie- not something which is subject to interpretation, or a miscommunication, but a lie.

European law provides that when the European Commission finds a breach of competition rules, victims of that infringement can directly rely on such a Decision as binding proof in civil proceedings for damages. This is the truth dear Madam Nelie Kroes and if, we say if, your spokesman and his superiors really believe what he said in the pressroom on the 10 September, you better send them back to school to learn Competition Law from scratch. Furthermore, if the Commission intends to take action on competition policy depending on how they feel about the industry, then they should probably reduce the amount of information available on Competition rules so people can’t quote them back.

The latest on the roaming case on our side is that we are examining the case from the juridical point of view and to this effect we have applied to the Secretary General of the Commission, Catharine Day for the release of the following documents related to roaming investigation. The formal proceedings which DG COMP initiated against Vodafone, Tmobile and O2 regarding the roaming tariffs as mentioned in the above letter of Mr. Philip Lowe. The submissions subsequently provided from the concerned companies (i.e. Vodafone, T-mobile and O2). The minutes of the hearing that took place between DG COMP and the above companies (Article 27 of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2003). The final Commission Decision taken in July 2007 with regards to the above case as mentioned by Mr. Todd in the Commission’s briefing.

The roaming issue is serious because it concerns invoiced services of over 60 billion Euro and if, we say if, infringement of competition rules is found- and not hidden, but a decision is made, a penalty of up to six billion Euro could be raised while in the basis of the Roaming Regulation tariffs, consumers may claim rebates totalling over 30 billion Euros.