On Wednesday 3 August, the European Commission announced that it had given its conditional authorisation to plans to create a joint venture in the Netherlands between the mobile telephony operator Vodafone and the cable operator Liberty Global.
Vodafone will have to divest its retail fixed-line telephony activities in the Netherlands. The Commission furthermore rejected the request by the Netherlands to refer the dossier back to the Dutch competition authorities. It fears that the transaction could compromise the advantages stemming from Vodafone’s recent entry onto the Dutch telecoms market. According to the European institution, the merger would remove Vodafone as an operator capable of bringing considerable competitive pressure to bear on the fixed-line and fixed-to-mobile ‘multiple play’ services in the country, which is likely to lead to price increases and lower levels of competition. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)