European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager recently reaffirmed the European Union’s stance on merger regulations within the telecoms sector. Despite reports of potential changes to facilitate merger operations among telecom companies, she noted she had not heard of any proposed alterations to the existing rules.
These reported modifications were backed by a Reuters publication citing Commission documents, suggesting that antitrust regulators were geared towards easing the combination of telco operations. For the past decade, the European Commission has maintained a cautious attitude regarding such mergers, especially those that could result in lessening market players from four to three. The Commission is keenly aware that these scenarios tend to decrease competition while elevating prices for the consumer.
Instances of deal approvals have been historically rare, and when enacted, the Commission ensures stringent conditions. Stipulations often include price fixes for consumers and the divestment of overlapping assets.
In recent times, increased costs associated with fibre and 5G rollouts have compelled network operators to call for change. Increasing competition and challenging macroeconomic conditions have resulted in shrinking profit margins. Consequently, operators have been driven to explore mergers as a vehicle to achieve cost-saving synergies and scalable growth.
Moreover, many operators argue that the crowded European telecoms market is trailing behind global competitors in the US and China. The latter markets, dominated by three primary providers, present more concertedly streamlined operations and investment opportunities.
Several high-profile mergers, such as between Orange and MasMovil in Spain and Three and Vodafone in UK, are already in process. However, Commissioner Vestager assured that it’s improbable that merger regulations will undergo any changes in the near future. Instead, her efforts are directed at addressing other policy obstacles like spectrum coordination.
Vestager stated, “One of my hobby horses is indeed to push for taking away the barriers that disable us from having a real European single market for telcos.” She further added, “If you have a more centralized spectrum management, you can actually harvest efficiencies that are not possible today.”
