![\"Regulator](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1607d56d-fea2-4990-a3da-487797cf162a.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe regulator has imposed \u201curgent interim measures\u201d on Eircom to halt the offer, which has been available since last Monday.<\/p>\n
Eircom has been told to stop registrations for the promotion on its website, stop delivery of any leaflets with information about it and other marketing activities, and ensure all its agents stop promoting it as well. People who have already registered for the promotion this week can still receive the \u20ac50 gift card, however.<\/p>\n
ComReg has taken the action because it was never notified about the promotion, and has concerns it would not meet the requirement for approval.<\/p>\n
The regulator received a formal complaint from a retailer last Friday about the Open Eir promotion. The complainant said there had not been enough industry consultation or notice, and that the promotion would disproportionately benefit Eircom\u2019s retail division as customers would be inclined to search for \u201cOpen Eir\u201d and land on its website.<\/p>\n
In a letter to retailers, the Open Eir team had said \u201cwe are targeting premises that have fibre to the home available in low-penetration areas\u201d. ComReg says that based on its initial analysis of the Eircodes that were included, \u201cthe promotion is targeted at existing Virgin Media Ireland customers and footprint\u201d.<\/p>\n
The regulator contacted Eircom after it received the complaint, and spoke to the company\u2019s chief regulatory officer Kjeld Hartog. He expressed the view that ComReg did not need to be told about the \u20ac50 offer because it was not a \u201cwholesale promotion\u201d.<\/p>\n
The regulator does not agree with this interpretation, and believes the promotion \u201crisks creating serious economic or operational problems for other providers of electronic communications networks or services\u201d, and that urgent interim measures are needed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Regulator has acted on a complaint from a retailer about OpenEir<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Friday, October 17<\/p>\n
It said in a ruling posted online today that it was not relevant the price reduction being offered by Eircom was in the form of a gift card granted to a retailer\u2019s customer rather than to the retailer directly.<\/p>\n
It also said that a discount targeted to an area where a rival has just deployed, or is deploying, a network can stop efficient investment, undermining the prospect of economically efficient network competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe requirement that Eircom obtain ComReg\u2019s prior approval in advance of implementing a wholesale promotion or discount, so that ComReg can ensure that the discount or promotion will not have anti-competitive effects in the market, is a cornerstone of Wholesale Local Access (WLA) regulation and an essential requirement in ensuring fair competition,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEircom\u2019s failure to pre-notify ComReg means that there has been no economic assessment of the promotion and no assurance that no anti-competitive effects will arise from the implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cImplementation by Eircom of the promotion without prior approval risks creating serious economic problems for alternative network providers by Eircom unfairly enticing end-users away from their networks, thereby strengthening its market position and foreclosing the market further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eircom has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The regulator has imposed \u201curgent interim measures\u201d on Eircom to halt the offer, which has been available since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,77579,18,19,17,6501],"class_list":{"0":"post-128652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eir-telecommunications","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-john-burns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}