EU: Commission clears T-Mobile NL’s acquisition of Tele2 NL

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Tele2 NL by T-Mobile NL. The Commission concluded that the merger would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Access to affordable and good quality mobile telecom services is essential in a modern society.  After thoroughly analysing the specific role of T-Mobile NL and the smaller Tele2 NL in the Dutch retail mobile market, our investigation found that the proposed acquisition would not significantly change the prices or quality of mobile services for Dutch consumers.”

Today’s decision follows an in-depth investigation of T-Mobile NL’s proposed acquisition of Tele2 NL. The proposed transaction would combine Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary T-Mobile NL with Tele2’s subsidiary Tele2 NL, respectively the third and fourth largest operators in the Dutch retail mobile telecommunications market. The merged entity would remain the third largest player on the Dutch market after KPN and VodafoneZiggo.