French telecoms provider Orange and Spanish peer MasMovil are set to get an EU antitrust warning about their 18.6-billion euro ($20.3 billion) merger, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Orange, the second largest telecoms provider in Spain, and fourth-ranked MasMovil announced the deal in July 2022, seen by the sector and analysts as a test case of whether the European Commission will ease its tough line on mergers that reduce the number of big telecom operators in a market to three from four.
The EU competition enforcer will set out its concerns about the deal in a so-called statement of objections in the coming days, warning that the deal may be anti-competitive, the person said.
Orange and MasMovil are not expected to offer any remedies prior to receiving the document, the person said.
The Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the deal by Sept. 4, and Orange declined to comment.
The companies have argued that Spain is a very competitive market, citing Telefonica, Vodafone and numerous mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) which sell their services using the network of larger mobile operators.
Source: Reuters.com