The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has urged the General Court to rule again on the judgment in which it annulled the decision of the European Commission to block the acquisition of Telefónica Europe (O2) by Hutchison 3G UK Investments, owner of Three. Thus, the ruling annuls the first sentence against the veto of Brussels to the offer of 13,000 million pounds (16,900 million dollars) presented seven years ago by Hutchison on O2 UK.
The CJEU considers that the Commission made errors when interpreting the merger regulation, since it "imposed an evidentiary requirement" without foundation in current regulations. In addition, it criticizes the General Court for having made a restrictive interpretation, "incompatible" with the regulation.
Likewise, it considers that the first ruling erred by comparing the offer of Hutchison 3G -now CK Telecoms- for O2 UK with the other merger matters examined by the Commission and also by not having carried out a global assessment of the factors and the relevant findings to verify whether the Commission had demonstrated the existence of a significant impediment to effective competition.
The CJEU also considers that the Commission did indeed carry out an assessment of a possible deterioration in the quality of the network of the entity resulting from the planned concentration and that the General Court distorted its decision by declaring that this assessment had not been made. .
Thus, given the magnitude, nature and scope of the errors incurred by the General Court, which affect the whole of its reasoning, the Court of Justice annuls the appealed judgment and refers the matter back to the General Court, which will judge again this dispute in its entirety taking into account all the clarifications provided by the Court of Justice in the framework of the appeal.
The case is closely watched by the telecoms industry, as a victory for Hutchison could make it more difficult for EU antitrust regulators to block mergers that reduce the number of mobile phone operators in a country. The CJEU ruling comes after the telecommunications company agreed last month to merge Three UK with Vodafone's business in the United Kingdom for 17,546 million pounds.
In 2016, retired billionaire Li Ka-shing's Hutchinson conglomerate aimed to become Britain's largest mobile telecoms network operator by combining Three UK with Telefonica's O2 to better compete with BT's EE and Vodafone, but ran into the opposition from EU regulators.
EU antitrust authorities said the deal, which would have reduced the number of mobile phone operators from four to three, could drive up prices. Hutchison appealed the EU veto.
In its 2020 ruling, the General Court overturned the EU decision, raising the bar for regulators to block mergers that impede competition and prompting the European Commission to appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). , based in Luxembourg.
