The Federal Court yesterday ruled that Telstra has breached the provisions of the access agreement it has with Optus by misusing Optus’ confidential information.
Justice Edmonds ruled in favour of Optus, finding that Telstra has acted in breach of its agreement with its competitor by using confidential traffic information for its own marketing purposes.
From 1993 to 2000, Telstra’s wholesale arm allegedly passed on the confidential information in question to its retail division, which then prepared advertising material used to snatch customers back from Optus.
According to Optus, Telstra’s retail arm was able to track the success of Optus marketing initiatives and special offers and monitor market share performance.
“This is another example of anti-competitive behaviour from Telstra. And it is more historical evidence of why Telstra should be separated as canvassed in the Government’s regulatory reform discussion paper of 7 April 2009,” said the director of government and corporate affairs for Optus, Maha Krishnapillai.
Optus will be seeking damages.