In its lawsuit, Claro claims that between 2018 and 2024, the Spanish-owned company (Telefónica) took a series of legal actions “in order to protect and increase its clientele, and avoid having to make investments to compete.”
This Tuesday it was announced that Claro Chile filed a lawsuit against Telefónica (owner of Movistar), because, in its opinion, the company had engaged in unfair competition, specifically two types of conduct.
One of them points to an alleged obstruction by Movistar for the realization of a new contest for the 5G network, while the second deals with alleged movements to avoid the portability of clients from Movistar to Claro, reports Diario Financiero .
Regarding the first point: Claro claims in its lawsuit that between 2018 and 2024, the Spanish-owned company (Telefónica) took a series of legal actions “in order to protect and increase its clientele, and avoid having to make investments to compete,” affecting the competitive intensity within the market and thus harming “Claro and its consumers.”
According to the company, it all began in 2018 with a query from Telefónica to the Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia (TDLC), regarding the execution of some technical standards of Subtel, all with the aim of preventing Claro from using its old 3.5GHz concession for 5G services, DF details.
Other similar moves - including administrative appeals, consultations and procedures before the TDLC - were made by Telefónica in 2020 and 2022, with the alleged objective of not allowing, displacing or delaying Claro's participation in the 5G market.
CLARO SUES MOVISTAR FOR UNFAIR COMPETITION
On the other hand, Claro maintains that the Spanish company engaged in illegal maneuvers to affect the processes of changing companies by customers (portability).
In this regard, Claro explained that after a review of this type of process in November of this year, "starting on November 6, there was an extremely high and irregular rate of rejection" from Movistar, who alleged the existence of customer debts, which prevented them from changing services.
“It is normal to see an average of 10% of rejections, but it reached 37% in November 2024, and remained at inexplicably high levels during the following days, despite having informed Movistar of this situation,” the company said, according to DF.
Finally, for the Mexican firm there is "an evident intention to divert the company's clientele" through this alleged undue retention, being conduct that, in Claro's opinion, "not only undermines free competition, but also infringes the Portability Regulation and violates the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights."
For all these reasons, they hope that with this lawsuit, competition in the sector will take place under legal terms and that Telefónica will put an end to “its tricks and abuses of the right to shares,” the specialized media reports.
