Maroc Telecom Pays $640 Million Fine for Anti-Competitive Practices

Last July, the Casablanca Commercial Court of Appeal had confirmed the conviction of Maroc Telecom for abuse of dominant position. The historic operator had a 10-day deadline to pay 6.4 billion dirhams in compensation to its competitor Wana Corporate, formerly Inwi, as damages. This has now been done. The payment "was made during the month of July, thus avoiding a forced recovery procedure that could have greatly damaged its image" for Maroc Telecom. The historic operator has thus abandoned the idea of appealing the court’s decision to the Court of Cassation, the highest court in Morocco.

Last January, the Rabat Commercial Court had ordered Maroc Telecom to pay 6.4 billion dirhams in compensation to its competitor Wana Corporate for anti-competitive practices, following a complaint filed in December 2021 in which the plaintiff claimed 6.8 billion dirhams in damages. This is the largest financial penalty ever imposed on a telecom operator in Morocco: "it represents 17% of Itissalat Al-Maghrib (IAM)’s 2023 turnover, and exceeds its 6.1 billion dirhams in profits last year".

Maroc Telecom is a repeat offender. In January 2020, it had been fined 3.3 billion dirhams, following a referral by Inwi to the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT). The latter had concluded that the historic operator’s practices had "effectively prevented and delayed competitors’ access to unbundling and the fixed telephony market".