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Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-10-21Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] Greece, China seek closer trade relationsGreek Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas on Friday met with visiting Chinese Minister of Industry and Commerce Wang Zhongfu and discussed ways to improve trade relations between the two countries.The Greek minister asked for better coordination to improve inspections on Chinese products' specifications, sold in the Greek market, to avoid incidents putting consumers' health at risk and damaging the image of Chinese products internationally. Sioufas also asked for Mr Zhongfu's contribution to boost Greek exports to China (such as olive oil and other certified farm and industrial products) while he stressed that Greece could become a gateway and transit center for Chinese products to Europe. The Chinese minister asked for Greek government's expertise on competition matters, market function, advertising and consumer protection. Mr Sioufas wished for successful Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. [02] OTE wins '131' case against Newsphone HellasAn Athens first-instance court on Friday found in favour of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) in a case against its competitor Newsphone Hellas. The case concerns the new directory-inquiries numbers - of which OTE and Newsphone operate just two - that were introduced after state-run OTE's monopoly of the market ended and the now defunct OTE number 131 was scrapped.The court ruled that Newsphone Hellas had to radically change its advertising campaign for its directory-inquiries service and remove any reference to the 131 number from all visual, audio or printed advertising material. The company was also ordered to avoid any combination, correlation or link between the 131 number and the company's 11880 directory-inquiries code. In addition, Newsphone Hellas was required to state its company's name in all television, printed or audio messages. If the company fails to comply, the court has imposed a â¬3,000 fine for every mention of the 131 number and every failure to state Newsphone's company name. The ruling was based on arguments that Newsphone's advertising campaign was misleading for consumers, who have associated the 131 number with the directory-inquiries service provided by OTE, and thus tend to use the 11880 code because they confuse it with OTE'S new directory-inquiries number 11888. OTE's arguments were also based on price differences between the two services that make confusion damaging to consumers, since OTE charges a flat rate of â¬0.34 per call to its 11888 number while Newsphone Hellas charges â¬0.013 per second but imposes a one-minute minimum charge that comes to â¬0.78. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |