competition

Competition in the communications sector is complex and fast-changing. This presents both risks and opportunities to providers, as well as challenges for public authorities.

Our competition intelligence services help organisations understand the changing face of competition. We help them grasp the commercial and policy implications of new developments, and make decisions with efficiency and confidence.

Offered on a subscription basis, the service includes alerts, reports, and a database of case summaries written in English. You can also contact our competition law experts at any time for answers to specific questions.

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antitrust & mergers

Our Antitrust & Mergers service makes it simple to follow key trends in competition law and its enforcement. Covering the telecoms, media and postal sectors, as well as the digital economy, our intelligence helps leaders:

Stay informed on developments in abuse of dominance cases, covering infringements such as excessive pricing, predatory pricing, margin squeeze, self-preferencing, and tying and bundling.
Access data on the actions taken across the EU to address potentially anti-competitive agreements, such as network co-investment and sharing, and online sales restrictions in distribution agreements.
Track merger control cases to understand the wider implications of market consolidation for competition in Europe.

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state aid & subsidies

Our State Aid & Subsidies service offers intelligence on EU rules designed to ensure that public support measures in telecoms and the digital economy do not unduly distort competition and private investment. The principal focus of the service lies in the application of state aid rules to subsidised broadband deployment and take-up measures.

Subscribe to our State Aid & Subsidies intelligence service to:

understand the allowances and limits of public funding for broadband under EU state aid rules
follow the enforcement of these rules in relation tother developments, such as unfair advantages in spectrum auctions and big tech taxation
gain insights into key EU funding initiatives in telecoms and the digital economy, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)
understand the implications of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR)

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Latest Antitrust & Mergers intelligence

KKR/TIM NetCo merger (pending case)

25 April 24 Janne Kalliala

US-based global investment firm KKR notified to the European Commission its proposed acquisition of fixed network assets of TIM, the Italian telecoms incumbent. The transaction would conclude a drawn-out process to dissolve TIM's vertical integration by separating its fixed network infrastructure assets from the services that TIM will continue to provide to its retail customers.

UK competition authority probes Amazon and Microsoft’s ties to AI developers

25 April 24 Miklós Kozma

The Competition and Markets Authority is consulting until 9 May 2024 on Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic, Microsoft’s partnership with Mistral AI, and Microsoft’s hiring of former employees of Inflection AI. The authority is inviting comments from all interested parties on whether these arrangements amount to mergers under UK competition rules and, if they do, what their impact on competition might be.

Amazon/Anthropic partnership (pending case)

25 April 24 Miklós Kozma

The UK Competition and Markets Authority is consulting until 9 May 2024 on Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic, a developer of artificial intelligence foundation models.

Latest State Aid & Subsidies intelligence

Letta report: EU telecoms sector needs scale, a European regulator, a unified spectrum policy and guidance on specialised services

18 April 24 Martin Schraa

Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta presented a roadmap towards an EU single market for electronic communications by 2029. The current and upcoming Council presidencies are to “take work forward” on his recommendations by the end of the year.

Deployment of high-speed fixed broadband networks in France 2024

15 April 24 Carmen Mateas

The French authorities reported to the European Commission a large €500m state aid scheme to support the deployment of high-speed fixed broadband networks of at least 30 Mbps (download) and the ancillary backhaul networks. The scheme falls under the EU General Block Exemption Regulation.

Compensating telecoms operators in Italy for rise in energy costs 2024

09 April 24 Janne Kalliala

The European Commission approved under EU state aid rules a €35m Italian scheme to compensate telecoms operators for the exceptional rise in electricity costs caused by Russia's war against Ukraine.

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upcoming events

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17 > 19 September 24 ONLINE Competition Law in the telecoms sector

get in touch

For more information about our Competition services, please contact:

Janne Kalliala phone: +39 348 69 18 879 janne.kalliala@cullen-international.com