Spain’s competition authority has fined Telefónica €20 million for breaking promises it made a decade ago when it bought pay-TV operator DTS.
The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) found that between August 2021 and April 2023, Telefónica forced customers who signed up for its Movistar Fusión and MiMovistar packages — which included pay-TV and rented devices — to accept lock-in periods and face penalties for early cancellation.
Those practices, the CNMC said, violated the conditions Telefónica had agreed to in 2015, when regulators cleared its takeover of DTS on the condition it would not restrict customers’ ability to switch providers.
It’s not the first time the company has been punished. In 2023, the CNMC fined Telefónica €6 million for imposing similar restrictions in offers that bundled pay-TV with smartphones. Regulators say the company later expanded the practice to other electronic devices, making the permanence clauses tougher.
Calling the breach a very serious infringement, the CNMC noted that Telefónica has repeatedly ignored its commitments, which was treated as an aggravating factor when setting the fine.
Telefónica can appeal the decision to Spain’s National Court within two months.
