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European Commission to Investigate Hutchison's Take-over of Orange Austria
Published on:
The European Commission has opened an investigation into the planned acquisition by Hutchison 3G Austria ("3") of its local competitor Orange Austria.
In a statement, the Commission said that its initial market investigation has found 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.
"The merger will reduce the number of network operators from 4 to 3 in Austria. Therefore, the Commission must make sure that this concentration does not lead to higher prices for end consumers", commented the Commission's Vice-President Joaquín Almunia.
In Austria, only two further mobile network operators are present in these markets, namely A1 Telekom Austria and T-Mobile.
The Commission now has up to 90 working days to take a final decision on whether the concentration would significantly impede effective competition within the Common Market.
The transaction was notified to the Commission on 7 May 2012.
The H3G / Orange deal is closely interlinked to 2 further transactions. First, H3G will sell-on 700,000 customers currently served under the Yesss! brand to A1 Telekom Austria. Second, A1 Telekom Austria will acquire from H3G certain assets currently owned by Orange, such as sites, spectrum frequencies and intellectual property rights.
According to H3G/Orange the transfer of spectrum frequencies has to be approved by the Austrian Telecom Regulator (RTR/TKK).
Tags: [hutchison 3g austria] [orange] [Austria]
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