The European Commission has opened a 90 working day phase II antitrust investigation into the proposed takeover of Orange Austria by Hutchison.
The decision comes only one day after the Austrian competition commission BWB delayed its separate review of…
The European Commission has opened a 90 working day phase II antitrust investigation into the proposed takeover of Orange Austria by Hutchison.
The decision comes only one day after the Austrian competition commission BWB delayed its separate review of the sale of Orange Austria’s Yesss! subsidiary to Telekom Austria.
The EC is concerned that the proposed acquisition may create significant competition problems by removing Orange as a competitor in the retail market for end consumers and on the wholesale market for network access and call origination.
Decision on referral request pushed back
Today’s ruling also means that a decision about a referral of the Orange/Hutchison review from the EC to Austria will be decided later only.
Both antitrust investigations will continue to be run separately by the respective authorities.
In late May, the BWB had submitted a referral request to the EC, which was due to decide about the request by today.
But with today’s decision to open an in-depth investigation the EC has also gained further time to decide on the BWB’s request.
An EC spokesperson said the regulator now has until 10 August.
The sale of Orange Austria and the sale of Yesss! were structured as two separate transactions that therefore require separate antitrust clearances. While the €1.3bn sale of Orange Austria met turnover thresholds for a notification with the European Commission, the much smaller Yesss! deal only required notification in Austria.
Und European Union regulation EU member states can however ask for a referral of an EC investigation, if a merger is expected to particularly affect competition within that member state.
Approval of referral requests is at the discretion of the EC.