Brussels, 08/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 8 April, the European Commission opened an in-depth investigation into the planned merger of Danish telecoms companies TeliaSonera AB and Telenor ASA to assess whether it would hamper competition.
The proposed transaction would combine the number two and number three operators in the mobile retail market, and would reduce the number of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in Denmark from four to three. It would create the largest player both in terms of revenue and number of subscribers. The Commission has concerns that on the Danish mobile telecommunications markets, the merged entity would face insufficient competitive constraint from the only two remaining players.
The Commission therefore has concerns that the transaction could reduce the merged entity's and its competitors' incentives to compete, leading to higher prices, loss of innovative offers and lower quality on the Danish retail mobile telecommunications market. (Élodie Lamer)