The parent companies of Orange and T-Mobile have offered concessions to the European Commission on their merger to ensure the deal gets the go ahead, according to reports.
France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have told the European Commission's anti-trust investigators that they are willing to ensure deals for network sharing as well as selling off some of their sought after spectrum allocation, said The Wall Street Journal, citing its source as "a person familiar with the situation."
The UK merger is currently being looked into by the EU, but there have been calls from both competitors and regulatory authorities on these shores that the deal should be looked into in more detail over here before it gets the thumbs up.
John Holmes, a spokesperson from Which?, told IT PRO back in December: "This is a joint venture between UK subsidiaries only so only UK consumers will be affected. The only reason to have it looked at by Brussels is a technicality [down to parent company revenue]."
He believed that the commission should refer it to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), and the OFT itself called on Europe to let it look at the merger earlier this month.
We contacted both mobile companies and the European Commission for comment but they had not responded to our request at the time of publication.
-
‘Europe could do it, but it's chosen not to do it’: Eric Schmidt thinks EU regulation will stifle AI innovation – but Britain has a huge opportunityNews Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes EU AI regulation is hampering innovation in the region and placing enterprises at a disadvantage.
-
The EU just shelved its AI liability directiveNews The European Commission has scrapped plans to introduce the AI Liability Directive aimed at protecting consumers from harmful AI systems.
-
A big enforcement deadline for the EU AI Act just passed – here's what you need to know
News The first set of compliance deadlines for the EU AI Act passed on the 2nd of February, and enterprises are urged to ramp up preparations for future deadlines.
-
EU agrees amendments to Cyber Solidarity Act in bid to create ‘cyber shield’ for member statesNews The EU’s Cyber Solidarity Act will provide new mechanisms for authorities to bolster union-wide security practices
-
The EU's 'long-arm' regulatory approach could create frosty US environment for European tech firmsAnalysis US tech firms are throwing their toys out of the pram over the EU’s Digital Markets Act, but will this come back to bite European companies?
-
EU AI Act risks collapse if consensus not reached, experts warn
Analysis Industry stakeholders have warned the EU AI Act could stifle innovation ahead of a crunch decision
-
Three quarters of UK firms unprepared for NIS2 regulations, study findsNews Senior management can be held personally liable for non-compliance under NIS2 rules
-
US-UK data bridge: Everything you need to knowNews The US-UK data bridge will ease the complexity of transatlantic data transfers
