Hutchison Three has offered remedies to the European Commission in an attempt to secure approval for the takeover of O2 Ireland.
In line with EC regulation the agency has extended the ongoing merger review by 20 working days following the improved…
Hutchison Three has offered remedies to the European Commission in an attempt to secure approval for the takeover of O2 Ireland.
In line with EC regulation the agency has extended the ongoing merger review by 20 working days following the improved remedy proposal.
The new deadline is 19 May, which means for now the decision would come only after the result of the EC’s parallel review of the sale of E-Plus to Telefonica in Germany will be announced on 14 May. However, this investigation might see a similar delay in the coming days if Telefonica also decides to offer improved remedies.
TelecomFinance understands that the new set of concessions covers the future of an existing network sharing agreement with incumbent Eircom, spectrum, and how the merging parties will deal with MVNOs interested to use its network.
The EC will now review the remedy proposal and is expected to ask third parties for comment in a subsequent market test, which could start in the second half of March.
The EC was notified of the proposed merger in early October and launched an in-depth phase II investigation in November last year. In February, Hutchison received a statement of objections from the regulator, which outlined why the merger will be blocked unless further reaching remedies will be offered.
An oral hearing followed later that month. TelecomFinance has learnt that among parties attending the hearing were competitors Eircom, Liberty Global and Tesco, which operates an MVNO in the country. A number of European antitrust bodies also attended, including the Irish regulator, and representatives from Germany, Austria, and the UK.
