FAS found MegaFon’s tariff increase unjustified

The FAS considered the increase in tariffs for MegaFon’s communication services in 2023 unjustified, recognizing the operator as a violator of antimonopoly legislation. The company faces a fine. She is already appealing in court a similar decision of the service from the end of 2022, but agreed to return to the previous level the conditions of a number of tariffs, changes to which took place in 2023. Telecom operators expect that after the adoption of the industry development strategy until 2035, they will be able to increase prices faster than inflation, but so far the FAS is against this provision of the document. Kommersant’s sources are confident that there will be no noticeable increase in communication prices before the presidential elections.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) found MegaFon to have violated antimonopoly laws due to an unreasonable increase in tariffs in 2023 for more than 8.2 million subscribers by an average of 10.24%, it says in a message from the department. The operator justified the increase in tariffs by increased costs. The amount of his fine will be determined during the administrative investigation.

In December 2022, FAS already admitted MegaFon was found guilty of violating antimonopoly laws and issued an order to reduce tariffs. The company is appealing it in court. The service also checked the increase in tariffs of the operators Tele2 (owned by Rostelecom) and VimpelCom (Beeline brand), but found them to be justified. The FAS opened a new case against MegaFon in September 2023. At the same time, the service began checking MTS (see. “Kommersant” dated September 15, 2023).

MegaFon told Kommersant that they agreed to return the terms of a number of archived tariffs, changes to which were made in January 2023.

The operator plans to introduce adjustments gradually and plans to complete the process by mid-February 2024.

At the same time, the company emphasized that the gradual indexation of individual tariffs from the operator’s archive has “completely objective reasons.” “We will continue the dialogue with the regulator on the very sensitive topic of pricing in the cellular communications market, since with a general increase in costs, it seems impossible to maintain the price level unchanged, especially for those tariffs whose economics were relevant several years ago,” MegaFon added.

Formally, communication tariffs in the Russian Federation are not regulated. But in April 2022, the FAS, with the participation of the Ministry of Digital Development, developed recommendations for operators to increase prices by no more than the inflation accumulated since the beginning of the year, notifying the service two weeks in advance. This summer, during a discussion of the development of the communications industry until 2035, operators explained to the government that modernizing networks to ensure their stable operation would require an annual increase in tariffs by an amount exceeding inflation by 5% (see. “Kommersant” dated June 30, 2023).

A Kommersant source close to one of the operators notes that the draft industry development strategy until 2035 stipulates the possibility of raising tariffs above the inflation rate. But the FAS is against this: the service in September gave negative review of the document. The position of the service greatly limits the income of operators, Kommersant’s interlocutor emphasizes. However, he is confident that “no increases above inflation will be allowed before the presidential elections next year.”

Alexey Zhabin