T-Mobile Netherlands has filed with the European Commission competition authorities for regulatory approval of its proposed takeover of Tele2 Netherlands, as first announced in December. The Comission set a deadline of 12 June for taking a decision on the deal, which will leave Tele2 with a minority stake in the merged operators. The Dutch regulator ACM announced that it will work together with the Commission on the merger review process.
The ACM, which has responsibility for telecom, consumer and competition regulation in the Netherlands, said it will share its expertise with the Commission, given the importance of the merger for the Dutch market. The deal will be keenly watched by the wider industry, as it reduces the Dutch market to three from four mobile operators, just a few years after Tele2 first launched its own network. The ACM will contribute market research to aid the Commission's review of the merger.
The ACM has not made an official request to the Commission to take full responsibility for the merger review. The regulator said the Commission was best-placed to handle the case, as it's also currently working on a second review of the Liberty Global takeover of Dutch cable operator Ziggo. Its earlier clearance of the latter deal was struck down by a court appeal by rival KPN.
The statements suggest that the regulators will be looking closely at the impact of the T-Mobile/Tele2 merger beyond the mobile market, to also include the growing market for fixed-mobile bundles in the Netherlands. The ACM recently looked at this market as part of its analysis of the broadband access market, which resulted in proposals to regulate both the KPN and VodafoneZiggo networks. These are still at the draft stage and will also need to be sent to the Commission for comment.
The Commission previously approved in 2014 the merger of Liberty Global's UPC with Ziggo. Since then the company has merged with Vodafone Netherlands, creating two large fixed-mobile players in the Netherlands. The court ruling overturning the approval of the UPC-Ziggo deal requires the Commission to look more closely at the premium TV market, although the analysis will need to be based on the market conditions at the time of the initial merger.
