Huawei to appeal Sweden’s ‘draconic’ 5G ban
07 November, 2020
Huawei Technologies is launching a legal challenge against Sweden’s decision to exclude it from 5G buildouts and says the move will create a monopoly for Ericsson.
The Chinese company has filed an appeal with an administrative court in Stockholm, arguing that the “draconic measure” violates EU and national laws by effectively barring it from the Swedish market.
The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority last month ruled that operators taking part in the country’s upcoming 5G spectrum auction can’t use equipment from Huawei or its much smaller rival ZTE.
The ban was predicated on an assessment by Sweden’s police and military agencies, which concluded that Chinese state influence over the private sector “brings with it strong incentives for privately owned companies to do something relative to state goals and the communist party’s national strategies”.
But Huawei says Chinese intelligence agencies have no authority to order the business to spy for them. It further argues your choice would create a de-facto monopoly for Ericsson after three major operators in Sweden must leave Huawei for Nokia or its Swedish rival.
While the ruling “means a chance for Nokia to determine itself available in the market, Ericsson’s advantage signifies that Nokia’s presence could somewhat be marginal later on”, Huawei said in its appeal.
Huawei’s calculations of the monetary loss it will suffer from the ban have been redacted from the appeal, but the company had sales of about 5 billion kronor ($575 million) in Sweden this past year. It also claims a phasing out of its products from existing networks would cost operators about 10bn kronor.
The Chinese company is contacting the court to immediately suspend last month’s decision as the 5G spectrum auction in Sweden is defined to begin on November 10.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com