Spain’s National Court (Audiencia Nacional) has rejected Telefónica’s request to suspend the immediate payment of a €20 million fine imposed by the Spanish competition authority (CNMC), pending the outcome of its appeal against the sanction.(Mundiario)
In an order dated 18 December 2025, the court dismissed the interim relief sought by the telecoms operator, finding that Telefónica had failed to demonstrate that paying the fine would cause irreparable harm. As a result, the company will be required to pay the penalty while judicial proceedings on the merits continue.
The ruling does not address the lawfulness of the fine itself but focuses on whether the conditions for granting interim measures were met. The court concluded that Telefónica’s arguments were insufficient to justify suspending enforcement of the sanction.
The fine relates to contractual practices associated with Movistar Fusión and miMovistar bundles, under which customers who subscribed to pay-TV services alongside the rental or purchase of mobile devices were subject to minimum commitment periods and early termination penalties. According to the CNMC, these practices breached commitments Telefónica undertook in 2015 as part of the approval of its acquisition of DTS, the former owner of Canal+.
Telefónica argued that the immediate payment of the fine could jeopardise planned investments in high-capacity networks and 5G deployment, particularly in rural areas, and thereby exacerbate the digital divide. However, the court found that the company had not substantiated these claims with concrete or quantified evidence.
The court noted that interim measures are not automatic and require proof that immediate enforcement would result in damage that is impossible or very difficult to repair. In this case, Telefónica had not provided detailed financial data, comparative analysis or independent assessments demonstrating how the €20 million payment would materially affect specific investment projects.
The certification submitted by Telefónica, issued by its own operations and network management, was considered insufficient. The court emphasised that it did not originate from an independent third party and lacked precise economic information regarding the scale and impact of the alleged investment constraints.
The court was also critical of Telefónica’s reliance on broader social arguments, including potential harm to rural connectivity initiatives. It described these claims as conditional and hypothetical, noting that Telefónica had failed to explain the relative significance of the fine in light of the group’s overall financial capacity.
The CNMC has previously fined Telefónica for similar conduct. In March 2023, the authority imposed a €6 million penalty for earlier breaches of the same commitments. According to the regulator, Telefónica continued the disputed commercial practices for more than a year thereafter, until the expiry of the Canal+-related commitments in April 2023, limiting customer mobility in the pay-TV market.
The decision underscores the courts’ reluctance to suspend antitrust sanctions in the absence of compelling evidence of irreparable harm and sends a broader signal to the telecommunications sector regarding the binding nature of regulatory commitments.
Telefónica, which has recently reported net losses linked to the divestment of several Latin American subsidiaries, is expected to publish its full-year results later this month. The company has not yet succeeded in delaying enforcement of the CNMC’s fine.