Joint venture opponents want Swisscom data
Private competition wants to prevent the joint marketing company of Swisscom, SRG and Ringier. Swisscom's data is to be made available to all, according to a submission to Bakom obtained by Schweiz am Sonntag.
The fight against the planned joint venture is being waged on the one hand via competition law and the Weko (Werbewoche.ch reported), on the other hand via the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), which monitors SRG's business activities. Schweiz am Sonntag has received a submission from a private competitor. According to the submission, the biggest thorn in the side of the opposition is the "data of the market dominator Swisscom". For tactical reasons, however, the submission to Bakom focuses on SRG. According to the law, the SRG must operate in such a way that private competitors can develop freely. In the view of the opponents of the joint venture, this point is no longer guaranteed with the media deal. They are therefore asking Bakom to prohibit SRG from participating in the joint venture.
But the exclusion of SRG is not the actual goal of the complaint. Rather, SRG has to ensure "that all data collected by it and contributed to the joint venture is made available to all market participants on a non-discriminatory basis," according to the submission. In addition, SRG should ensure that Swisscom also releases its data.
The complaint argues that the joint venture can reach the target audience more precisely than any other Swiss competitor thanks to the data pool of the former monopolist Swisscom. Swisscom is still dominant in the fixed network, broadband Internet and mobile telephony markets. Combined with the data from Swisscom TV, the Swisscom data pool gives the joint venture "an unassailable competitive advantage." In order to prevent the creation of a monopoly, competitors must receive the same Swisscom data as SRG and Ringier, the petition demands.
Swisscom, on the other hand, argues that as a listed company, it gains the data in free competition. Other companies such as Tamedia, Google or Facebook also have a lot of data that is suitable for marketing advertising, a spokesperson told Schweiz am Sonntag. Third-party access to the data is "not envisaged" - but the joint venture is in principle open to other partners, Swisscom stresses. (hae/SaS)
