Luxembourg, 06/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 5 October, the European Commission announced its intention of carrying out an in-depth investigation into the purchase of BASE Company NV by Liberty Global.
BASE, along with Proximus and Mobistar, is one of the three mobile network operators present in Belgium. Liberty Global controls the cable operator Telenet, which offers fixed-line telecommunications services in Flanders and part of the Brussels Region. Telenet also provides mobile services as a virtual operator, via the Mobistar network.
The Commission has concerns that the operation could reduce competition on the retail mobile telephony market in Belgium, where Telenet and BASE are currently competitors. It fears that the transaction could eliminate a significant competitive force and that the new entity born of the merger will have little incentive to bring significant competitive pressure to bear on Proximus and Mobistar.
The Commission also fears that the transaction will significantly reduce BASE's motivation to offer virtual operators access to its mobile network. This could have the result of less favourable conditions for virtual mobile network operators, which need to access the networks and, therefore, reduce competition on the retail mobile telephony market.
The Commission also suspects that the operation could increase Telenet's capacity to sell its fixed-line services to clients of the BASE mobile network (notably by bundling them together), and thereby increase the new entity's market power and allow it to exclude its competitors. The Commission has until 18 February 2016 to return its decision. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)