CityFibre files Competition Act Complaint about BT Openreach’s exclusionary strategy to suppress competition

CityFibre announces that it has submitted a Competition Act complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Ofcom against BT Openreach.

The complaint details how BT Openreach is undertaking an aggressive strategy to foreclose infrastructure competition in the UK fibre broadband market. This strategy exploits the dependency of its wholesale internet service provider customers (ISPs), deterring them from placing orders with alternative fibre providers, even though these providers offer faster, more reliable, and cheaper wholesale services.

The Competition Act 1998 was designed to prevent abusive monopolistic behaviour. BT Openreach’s strategy, set out in the complaint, risks causing irreversible harm to network competition in the UK.

CityFibre Chief Executive Officer Greg Mesch said: “We welcome fair competition, but BT Openreach’s behaviour is straight out of the playbook of a dominant operator using its market power and advantages to maintain its dominance.

“If left unchecked, BT Openreach will strangle competition and threaten the pace of the UK’s full fibre roll out – all at the same time as BT Consumer is imposing broadband price rises on millions of households far above the rate of inflation.

“Were this to happen, it would also send a clear signal to investors that this country is not a place where they can safely invest the billions of pounds needed to improve UK infrastructure.”