Altice has reached a settlement with the French Competition Authority, agreeing to accept a fine of EUR 80 million for ‘gun-jumping’ practices relating to the acquisition of SFR and Virgin Mobile in 2014. The announcement follows an inquiry investigating whether the companies involved had started cooperating on their commercial activities before being given the regulatory green light.
Altice stated that it had agreed to a settlement in order to limit its financial exposure, given the level of penalties imposed for this type of procedural violation under the French Commercial Code. With this decision, the first to be handed down on this issue in France, the Competition Authority has clarified the rules that the parties to a merger must observe between the signature of the agreement and the authority's decision.
