Page 88 - SAMENA Trends - August 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

El Salvador Imposes Conditions on AM’s Takeover of Movistar

El Salvador’s competition regulator the and business connectivity services and y Telecom, SIGET) to a new entrant or to
Superintendencia de Competencia (SC) therefore has decided to impose a set of a smaller player. In addition, Claro must
has imposed a number of conditions on the conditions to remedy the potential impact also retain all of the marketing strategies
sale of Telefonica Moviles El Salvador and and protect consumers. In order to secure developed by Movistar and by Claro for
Telefonica Multiservicios (both operating approval, AM’s local wireless unit Claro seven years, and should a new entrant
as Movistar) to Mexican group America must hand back 25MHz of 850MHz and arise in that time frame, then Claro must
Movil (AM). Following its technical, legal 30MHz of 1900MHz spectrum currently provide national roaming services for a
and economic analysis of the USD315 held by Movistar, which will then be period of three years, extendable for a
million deal, the SC determined that the auctioned off by the Electricity and further three years.
acquisition would limit competition in Telecommunications Superintendency
the markets for mobile, fixed telephony (Superintendencia General de Electricidad

Australia Takes Action Over Personal Data Practices

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission their accounts with data about their activities on non-Google sites “that
(ACCC) filed a case against Google in federal court used Google technology, formerly DoubleClick technology, to display ads”,
alleging it misled consumers about the expanded use in 2016. ACCC Chair Rod Sims said: “We are taking this action because we
of personal data for a targeted advertising program. consider Google misled Australian consumers about what it planned to do
In a statement , ACCC said the company didn’t seek with large amounts of their personal information, including internet activity
consumers’ explicit consent and failed to inform them on websites not connected to Google.” “Google significantly increased
when it started combining personal information in the scope of information it collected about consumers” which it used “to
serve up highly targeted advertisements without consumers’ express
informed consent”. The ACCC argues the resulting boost to the commercial
performance of Google’s advertising business was akin to a price increase
for consumers, which “effectively pay” for the company’s services “with their
data”, Sims said. ACCC also alleges millions of Australian’s were misled about
a related change to Google’s privacy policy from 28 June 2016 until at least
December 2018, when they were prompted to agree to a pop-up notification
which purported to explain how the company planned to combine their data,
and sought consent. Google faced a number of obstacles in Australia over
the past two years, with the government in April detailing plans to require
tech giants to share advertising revenue with domestic publishers, directing
ACCC to develop a code of conduct to address perceived imbalances in
bargaining power between news media businesses and digital platforms.
In December 2019 the government accepted key ACCC recommendations
to work on reform of digital platforms, with the consumer body previously
proposing Google and Facebook be overseen by a new regulatory body.

Japan Set to Slash Mobile Number Porting Fees

The government of Japan has announced application is made online. At a meeting struggling to offer lower fees to compete
new measures to fuel competition in the yesterday (27 August), a panel of experts effectively. Although the MNP regime went
domestic mobile market by making it broadly agreed on the plan, with the MIC live back in October 2006, the number
easier for users to switch to another carrier now hopeful it can introduce changes of people using the system has stalled
while keeping their current number. Under to improve the country’s mobile number in recent years. In fiscal 2018, it stood
the plan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs portability (MNP) regime by the end of at around 5.06 million, but it fell to 4.33
and Communications (MIC) is aiming to the year. The government is mindful that million in fiscal 2019, or just 2.7% of the
cut the current charge to switch at shops as things stand, the big three cellcos – total wireless subscriber base, according
from JPY3,000 (USD28) to JPY1,000, NTT DOCOMO, KDDI (au) and Softbank to government data.
while removing the fee altogether if the Corp – are dominant and newcomers are

88 AUGUST 2020