L 52/30 Official Journal of the European Communities 22.2.2001 COMMISSION DECISION of 29 December 2000 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (Case No COMP/36.841 — Unisource) (notified under document number C(2000) 4094) (Only the Dutch, English and Swedish texts are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2001/143[EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, Having regard to Council Regulation No 17 of 6 February 1962, first Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the EC Treaty ('), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1216/ 1999 (3, and in particular Articles 2 and 8(3)(a) thereof, Having regard to Commission Decision 97/780/EC of 29 October 1997 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 85 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (*) (Case No IV/35.830 — Unisource), Having regard to the application filed on 23 December 1999 by Unisource NV (Unisource) and its three shareholders, Konin- klijke KPN NV (KPN), Swisscom AG (Swisscom) and Telia Ab (Telia) (collectively: ‘the Parties), for a review of the need for the conditions and obligations contained in Decision 97/780] EC, Having regard to the summary of the application and noti- fication published () pursuant to Article 19(3) of Regulation No 17, After consultation with the Advisory Committee for Restrictive Practices and Dominant Positions, Whereas: I. THE FACTS (1) According to the Parties, market developments over the past years as well as the losses accumulated during those years have forced them to abandon their wholly-owned () O] 13, 21.2.1962, p. 204/62. () O] L 148, 15.6.1999, p. 5. () O] L 318, 20.11.1997, p. 1. (% O] C 217, 29.7.2000, p. 35. (4) subsidiary, Unisource NV, as the joint venture for conducting their international expansion strategy. Consequently, they have taken the irreversible decision to reduce Unisource's scope. A. Creation of Unisource and related agreements The decision of the shareholders is to abandon the stra- tegic alliance articulated through Unisource. They will, however, maintain until their expiry the Unisource agreements, that is to say, the instruments creating Unisource and the individual contractual restrictions contained therein. Unisource will continue to exist as a holding company for the joint ownership by KPN, Telia and Swisscom of AUCS communication services vof (AUCS). Management of the AUCS communication services, which offers services to multinationals in Europe, is now undertaken by Infonet (in which Unisource's parent companies have a 56 % stake). B. Reduced scope of Unisource's activities According to the Parties, the only activity that remains of the Unisource activities described in Decision 97/ 780/EC is the provision of value added telecommunica- tions services to multinational corporate customers (°). This business is carried through AUCS (formerly Uniworld). On 29 May 1999, Unisource acquired 100 % of the shares of AUCS by taking over AT&T's shares. This transaction was declared compatible with the common market by Commission decision of 8 July 1999 in Case COMP/M.1581 (9). All the other activities described in Decision 97/780/EC have been abandoned. As a result, the only remaining subsidiary owned by Unisource is AUCS vof. (°) Namely, the provision of seamless, value added international voice, data, internet and messaging services to multinational companies operating in Europe. ( O] C 328, 17.11.1999, p. 7.