The Public Ministry accuses Meo, Nos and Vodafone of combining prices and proposals before competing in public tenders opened by the Ministry of Education.
The three largest telecommunications operators in Portugal are being investigated by the Competition Authority for suspected cartel in the provision of Internet services to needy students, schools and teachers, within the scope of the public program financed by European funds.
According to , the investigation, which covers Meo, Nos and Vodafone, began last year and includes searches carried out at the three companiesduring which communications were seized, namely from Henrique da Fonseca, administrator of Vodafone. According to the Public Ministry, there is “strong signs” of concertation between operators, at least since 2021, with the aim of setting prices and sharing the market in public tenders launched to provide these services.
According to the court order that authorized the steps, companies will have previously agreed on how they would competepresenting proposals aligned with the base prices defined in the terms of reference, thus guaranteeing the award of contracts. This type of practice is prohibited by both national legislation and the European Union, and can result in significant fines, although it does not constitute a crime in Portugal.
In 2021, in the context of the pandemic and the need for distance learning, the three operators signed contracts with the Ministry of Education worth a total of more than 22 million euros. Of this amount, around seven million were allocated to Vodafone, 7.4 million to Meo and almost eight million to Nos. Part of the contracts were awarded through international public bidding, while others were carried out through auction.
Operators have challenged data seizures in court, in some cases invoking violation of privacy and even state secrets. However, recent decisions by the Lisbon Court of Appeal validated, for now, the legality of the searches, considering that the collection of information was limited to what was strictly necessary for the investigation.
At the same time, a report from the Court of Auditors revealed irregularities in the execution of contracts, namely charging for services associated with SIM cards that were never used. In 2022, the Ministry of Education required operators to return of around 11 million euros.
