Serbia’s Trade Minister Tomislav Momirovic refused to comment the state-owned Telekom’s campaign against the SBB cable services provider, saying that would be inappropriate.
“I don’t know how professional that would be, how adequate it would be for me to comment your question about the activities of another company which is in conflict with you on the market. I think that business results in the coming period will provide the answer,” he said in answer to an N1 reporter’s question about fair market competition in this case.
Telekom Serbia has been waging a campaign to convince SBB clients to change providers claiming they can help them get out of their contracts with SBB without having to pay penalties. Telekom has been putting up stands in public institutions and has even used municipality administration buildings and at least one police station for the campaign. It has also teamed up with the Yettel (former Telenor Serbia) mobile services provider for the campaign. SBB is part of United Media along with N1.
Momirovic was asked about the Telekom stands put up in front of SBB branches and replied that “the market, that is the public, perfectly recognize quality of prices and other services which each market participant offers”.
“I can accept or reject the justification that stands are the reason why someone is losing a market position. In any case, market competition is harsh. In order to win that market competition you have to offer better services and I really can’t help you with that and I don’t have the right to do that,” The Minister of Domestic and Foreign Trade said.
