On Thursday 18 July, the European Commission conditionally approved the acquisition of Liberty Goal's cable business in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic by Vodafone.
This decision follows the opening of an in-depth investigation by the institution on 11 December last year.
As a result of this, the Commission was concerned that the transaction, as initially envisaged, would remove important competitive constraint in the market for the retail supply of fixed broadband services or that the merged entity would have too much market power. These two hypotheses would thus have been likely to have a negative impact on competition.
In response to the institution's concerns, Vodafone has offered several commitments, including to provide Telefónia with access to the cable network of the future joint venture, or not to increase the feed-in fees that free-to-air broadcasters will pay to Vodafone for the transmission of their television channels via the network of the future entity resulting from the acquisition.
The Commission considered that the operation, as envisaged with these commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns. It therefore authorised Vodafone's acquisition of Liberty Goal's cable business in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, subject to full compliance with the commitments. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)