In July 2004, the Commission sent 'statements of objection' to Vodafone and O2. Fomer Competition commissioner Mario Monti accused the two operators of using their dominant positions on the market for mobile telephony in Britain to charge operators from abroad exagerated rates for passing on their customers' international calls. In February 2005, similar statements were sent to T-Mobile and Vodafone, whom the Commission accused of abusing their market power in Germany in a similar manner (See EurActiv, 11 February 2005).
During the unusually long two-year probe that followed, O2 says that the company was denied its right of defence. A spokesman accused the Commission of disregarding due process and O2's procedural rights. In its complaint to the Ombudsman, filed in early September 2006, O2 accused the Commission of attempting "to conceal evidence on its file, which O2 is entitled to see and which supports O2’s defence".
DG Information society proposed, in July 2006, a cap to mobile roaming charges of 33 cent for local calls and 49 cent per minute for international calls (see EurActiv, 13 July 2006).
