The operator seized the Council of State to contest a sanction mechanism of arcep.
by Olivier Pinaud
Orange puts his threat to execution. According to information from the world, the telecom operator attacked the regulatory authority for electronic communications, posts and distribution of the press (ARCEP), on February 3, before the Council of State. Objective: to obtain the opening of a priority question of constitutionality (QPC), in order to question a sanction mechanism of the arcep. According to the request filed by the operator, the latter “undermines a disproportionate attack on the freedom to undertake”. Orange confirms this litigation. Laure de la Raudière, the president of the authority, says she is “shocked” by this procedure.
This action before the Council of State follows the salvo of criticism launched by Christel Heydemann, the director general of Orange, before the Senate economic affairs committee, November 30, 2022. The leader had expressed her anger on the Put in notice pronounced by ARCEP against the operator, on March 17, 2022, in which he was accused of not having respected his fiber optic deployment commitments in the moderately populated areas called “Call To manifestation of investment intention “.
a second complaint
“Is it reasonable or even useful to sanction the operator who made France the most fiber country in Europe”, stated M me heydemann before the senators. A second complaint, still in front of the Council of State, must be opened concerning the unbundling rate file, the rent that the other operators pay to borrow the Orange Adsl network. The latter accuses Arcep of not having held its promises to increase the price.
Beyond these quarrels, Orange wants to obtain from the Constitutional Council that it looks at the broader question of “cumulation, within the same independent administrative authority and by the same persons, of consultative attributions and of an almost jurisdictional power of sanction “. This argument worries the regulatory authority, which sees it as an attack on its power of sanction and its independence. “It is not the challenge of an isolated decision. It is Orange’s desire to challenge all of the objectives assigned to regulation by political will, by the will of the Parliament”, dreads M me of the Raudière, who believes that “without sanctioning power, deployments, quality of service, it will be their good will, when they see fit”.
This is not the first time that Orange has requested the opening of a QPC against ARCEP. In September 2019, Stéphane Richard, the CEO at the time, denounced the “legal harassment” of the regulator. But, a few weeks later, the operator had calmed the game by deciding to withdraw his complaint. The battle is relaunched.