OXFORD, United Kingdom—European Union (EU) Competition Commissioner Mario Monti has accused German and U.K. cell-phone operators of overcharging their customers when making calls from outside their home countries. Monti, who has a reputation for being a highly influential figure with wide-ranging powers under the EU Treaty, has called for a European-wide roaming tariff.
Monti said he intends to look closely at U.K.-based operators, claiming that some are blatantly overcharging. “We will shortly intervene on this matter in order to prevent the operators from abusing their position by charging high prices from people travelling abroad,” added the commissioner.
The EU Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen is expected to announce his support for Monti’s proposal when he next addresses EU ministers.
Oftel, the U.K. telecom regulator, said in December that U.K. consumers who use prepaid cell phones are paying twice as much as users from France, Germany, Italy and Sweden in roaming charges. Separately, the French telecom regulator, ART, called on the country’s cell-phone operators to take note of complaints of unfair pricing made by the country’s consumer association. The watchbody said French operators bill users for units of one minute, while other European operators charge per second.
