Brussels, 31/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 30 January, the European Commission said that it had rejected a request from Germany to refer the planned acquisition of E-Plus (the German subsidiary of the Netherlands' KPN, see EUROPE 11005) by Telefonica Deutschland (Telefonica) to the German competition authority for assessment under German competition law. On 20 November 2013, the German competition authority submitted a referral request under Article 9(2)(a) of the EU Merger Regulation. This provision allows the Commission to refer all or part of the assessment of a case to a member state provided that the competitive effects are restricted to purely national or smaller than national markets. The German competition authority submitted that the proposed transaction threatened to affect significantly competition in the retail mobile phone market (reducing the number of big players from four to three, namely the merged body, Vodaphone and Deutsche Telekom) and in the market for wholesale access and call origination on mobile networks in Germany. It also submitted that it was the most appropriate authority to deal with the case. The Commission believes itself to be better placed to deal with the case because of its experience in assessing mergers in the mobile telecommunications sector and the need for a consistent application of the merger control rules in the EU. The Commission will continue to cooperate closely with the German competition authority in the assessment, which began on 20 December 2013, of the €8.6 billion acquisition notified on 31 October. The Commission has until 14 May 2014 to take a final decision. (FG/transl.fl)