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.

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.

state aid & subsidies

Our State Aid & Subsidies service offers intelligence on subsidised telecoms projects across Europe. This includes a database of case summaries, as well as reports on EU state aid rules and how they apply to different projects.

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 state aid rules against tax benefits granted to large digital companies, such as Amazon and Apple.

Latest Antitrust & Mergers intelligence

Etisalat/PPF Telecom Group merger (pending case)
06 December 23 Miklós Kozma

The Hungarian and Slovak competition authorities unconditionally cleared the proposed acquisition of a controlling majority stake in PPF’s telecoms subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia by Emirates Telecommunication Group Company (Etisalat, also known as e&). The transaction was also notified to the Bulgarian competition authority, which has not yet announced a decision. In addition, PPF said that it expects that the transaction will be reviewed under the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

Adobe/Figma merger UK (pending case)
03 December 23 Miklós Kozma

Update: The UK competition authority provisionally concluded that Adobe’s proposed $20bn (€18.37bn) acquisition of rival software company Figma would harm competition in the global markets for product design software, vector editing software and raster editing software. The authority is consulting on its provisional findings until 19 December 2023, and its final decision is due by 25 February 2024.

Amazon/iRobot merger EU (pending case)
29 November 23 Miklós Kozma

Update: The European Commission sent Amazon a statement of objections, setting out its competition concerns over the company’s proposed acquisition of iRobot, a supplier of robot vacuum cleaners. According to the Commission, Amazon could foreclose iRobot’s rivals after the transaction by preventing them from selling on its online marketplace or degrading their access to the marketplace. The Commission’s provisional deadline to decide on the case is 14 February 2024.

Latest State Aid & Subsidies intelligence

Italian regulator approves changes to Open Fiber’s wholesale prices for state-subsidised networks
04 December 23 Alessandro Mauro

The amended fees apply in so-called white NGA areas of Italy, where Open Fiber won contracts to build and operate state-subsidised NGA broadband networks as a concessionaire.

Deployment of NGA broadband access networks in Italy 2016
03 December 23 Janne Kalliala

The European Commission approved under EU state aid rules a €4bn scheme to support the deployment of passive network infrastructure that allows the provision of at least 30/15 Mbps down-/upload broadband access services in underserved areas of the country. In some of these areas, the measure requires deploying more enhanced 100/50 Mbps networks.

Deployment of 1 Gbps broadband networks in Portugal 2023
27 November 23 Janne Kalliala

The European Commission approved under EU state aid rules a €172m Portuguese scheme to support the deployment of high-performing broadband networks that offer down-/upload speeds of at least 1 Gbps/150 Mbps in underserved areas of the country.

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get in touch

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