Swisscom fined 71.8 million Swiss francs for abuse of position in sports broadcasting

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's Competition Commission (COMCO) fined telecoms group Swisscom 71.8 million Swiss francs ($72.5 million) for abusing its dominant position in live sports broadcasting on pay television, it said on Tuesday. "The Swisscom group with its subsidiaries CT Cinetrade AG and Teleclub AG holds a dominant position particularly with respect to live broadcasting of Swiss football and ice hockey championship games on pay TV," COMCO said in a statement. "Swisscom has abused this position against competing TV platform operators in order to restrain competitors in platform competition," it added. In a separate statement, Swisscom denied the COMCO allegations and said it would lodge an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court and, if necessary, the Federal Supreme Court. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Maria Sheahan)