Brussels, 27/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 27 February, Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for the EU Competition Commissioner, said that, on the previous day, the European Commission had sent a statement of objection to Telefonica Deutschland about its planned €8.6 billion takeover of E-Plus, the German subsidiary of Dutch telecoms giant KPN (see EUROPE 11009). The Financial Times reports that the Commission fears that the deal would make Telefonica the biggest mobile phone operator in Germany and give it a dominant position on the market for pre-pay mobiles, where it would have a market share approaching 60%. The Commission says this would jeopardise competition and could force retail and wholesale prices up, leading to price increases on the pre-pay market of between 13% and 17%. Colombani refused to comment on the content of the letter to Telefonica Deutschland because it contains confidential information. He said the Commission was now awaiting Telefonica's comments and would take a final decision on the matter before 14 May 2014. (FG)