Beeline fined $1 million

Beeline was fined $1 million, the press-service of Kazakhstan Competition Protection Agency (Anti-Monopoly Agency) told Tengrinews.kz. “Cellular operator KaR-Tel (Beeline trademark) set a minimum threshold amount of 15,000 tenge ($100) for connection to the international roaming service, while the legislation does not provide for any threshold amount. The Agency considered such actions of the operator as abuse of a dominating position and impairment of consumers’ rights. In line with the court ruling KaR-Tel was fined over 155 million tenge ($1 million). The amount of the fine has been fully paid to the state budget,” the press-service stated. The Agency performed the investigation upon this fact and its materials were transferred to the administrative court of Almaty. According to the legislation, currently the threshold amount for connection to roaming service should not exceed 3,236 tenge ($21). According to the Competition protection Agency, the similar investigation was held in relation of GSM Kazakhstan of KazakhTelecom (K-Cell trademark). The company will pay a fine of 280 million tenge ($1.9 million).