Merger control & abuse of dominance update

🚨 Yesterday, the Belgian Competition Authority announced that it launched an investigation into a potential abuse of dominance by Proximus following its acquisition of EPDNET’s activities.

It did so with explicit reference to last week's Towercast judgement of the European Court of Justice. In that judgement, the Court confirmed that an acquisition can still be investigated by a competition authority under the prohibition for a company to abuse its dominant position, even if the acquisition did not require merger clearance.

The BCA did not hesitate to immediately rely on this case law to investigate a potential abuse of dominance by Proximus following its acquisition of EDPNET’s activities, an acquisition which did not require merger clearance, since EPDNET's turnover was below the merger control thresholds. And what is more, the transfer of EPDNET’s activities to Proximus was ordered by an enterprise court in insolvency proceedings.

The fear for increased deal uncertainty triggered by the Towercast judgement is now a reality. Interesting times ahead !

Want to know more? Watch out for our In The Picture next month. Or contact our merger control experts Herlinde Burez, partner, and Laura Sente, senior associate.

#competitionlaw #mergercontrol #abuseofdominance #antitrust #telecom #towercast #inthepicture