PARIS (Reuters) – The European Commission on Tuesday issued a warning in a statement of objections to Orange and MasMovil over their 18.6 billion euro merger deal in Spain.
Brussels, which has carried out an investigation to understand the markets affected and the potential impact of the merger, said in a press release that it fears that it will reduce the number of network operators in Spain, thus undermining competitive pressure and the ‘innovation.
The commission also fears that this merger will lead to “substantial price increases for the retail customers concerned throughout the Spanish market”.
The European Commission launched in April an in-depth investigation into the proposed merger of the two operators in Spain, due to its fears about the consequences of this operation in terms of competition.
Orange and MasMovil, respectively number two and four in the telecoms market in Spain, announced last July an agreement on this merger for an estimated total amount of 18.6 billion euros, which would reduce the number of operators in this country, with Telefonica and Vodafone.
The Commission must render its decision by September 4.
(Written by Nicolas Delame and Zhifan Liu, edited by Kate Entringer and Blandine Hénault)
Copyright © 2023 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
