AOL Germany Complains About Rival

AOL Time Warner Inc.’s German unit said Monday that it had filed a complaint with the German telecoms and regulator RegTP against Europe’s largest Internet service provider, T-Online International.

AOL Germany, the second-largest German Internet provider after T-Online, maintained its rival was setting unfairly low prices for Internet access, aided by its parent, Deutsche Telekom.

“The complaint includes the point that T-Online sets and offers retail prices below actual costs,” an AOL spokeswoman said.

Last week, the regulator said it was following leads on potentially anti-competitive Internet access pricing by T-Online, which is 82% owned by Deutsche Telekom.

A Telekom spokesman declined to comment on T-Online’s pricing.

The difference between retail prices charged by T-Online and wholesale prices for Internet connections charged by Telekom had aroused suspicion that Telekom was trying to secure a competitive advantage against its rivals, RegTP said last week.

T-Online is one of the more expensive German providers, but rivals accuse it of using its size and its relationship with Deutsche Telekom to force other providers to slash costs to compete.

It used to buy the connection time from parent Deutsche Telekom for a per-minute fee set by the regulator, but it has now moved to the new “wholesale flat rate.”