Islamabad, September 2, 2025 – The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has successfully recovered Rs458 million from Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) in the long-standing International Clearing House (ICH) case, marking a significant step toward enforcing fair market practices in the telecom sector.
According to a press release, the total recovery in the case has reached Rs495 million, with the remaining Rs37 million obtained from M/s Link Dot Net. The recovery follows a decision by the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which upheld the CCP’s earlier ruling that declared the ICH arrangement illegal and anti-competitive.
The ICH agreement, launched in 2012, routed all incoming international calls through a single PTCL-operated gateway. Termination rates were fixed at 8.8 US cents per minute—over four times the earlier rate—leading to inflated call costs for overseas customers and enabling operators to earn excessive profits, reportedly increasing revenues by more than 300 percent.
Initially, the CCP imposed penalties amounting to 7.5 percent of each Long Distance International (LDI) operator’s annual turnover. However, the Tribunal later revised the penalties to 2 percent of ICH-related revenues while directing prompt payment within 30 days.
Chairman CCP, Dr. Kabir Sidhu, emphasized the Commission’s commitment to upholding competition laws and warned businesses, including PTCL, against market manipulation, collusion, or practices that exploit consumers.