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.

To see how we can help you, get in touch for a personal demo.

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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

European Commission kicks off comprehensive review of EU merger guidelines

14 May 25 Miklós Kozma

The Commission is consulting until 3 September 2025 on the review of its guidelines on the competitive assessment of mergers, with the aim of adopting an updated analytical framework, for all types of mergers and all economic sectors, by 4Q 2027. This report provides an overview of the key topics covered by the Commission’s consultation, with additional analysis of its relevance for telecoms mergers.

Lyft/FREENOW merger (pending case)

09 May 25 Grégoire Henno

Lyft notified its proposed €175m acquisition of FREENOW to the Polish competition authority. Both companies are mobility-as-a-service providers, but Lyft does not currently operate in Poland.

SES/Intelsat merger EU (pending case)

07 May 25 Grégoire Henno

The European Commission received notification of SES’s proposed US$3.10bn (€2.95bn) acquisition of Intelsat, both satellite companies. The Commission’s provisional deadline for its phase I decision is 10 June 2025.

Latest State Aid & Subsidies intelligence

Tracking EU broadband state aid spending: latest figures

01 May 25 Janne Kalliala

According to the latest European Commission data, EU member states spent €5.26bn on broadband state aid in 2023, representing a 69% increase on 2022.

European Commission seeks initial input on future AI GigaFactories

25 April 25 Grégoire Henno

The Commission is consulting until 20 June 2025 on the future development of AI GigaFactories. The Commission’s InvestAI initiative includes a €20bn EU fund to finance up to five such large-scale AI computing and data storage facilities.

Explainer: Horizon Europe research and innovation programme

24 April 25 Janne Kalliala

Horizon Europe is the EU’s €95.6bn key funding programme for research and innovation for the period 2021 to 2027. Among other areas, it provides funding for projects in fields such as artificial intelligence, big data, advanced computing and quantum technologies.

Get access to the full reports and find out what our service could do for you with a free trial.

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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