The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of joint control of Telecom Italia Sparkle S.p.A. by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and Retelit S.p.A., all of Italy.
The transaction relates primarily to cable landing stations for submarine cables and related backhaul activities.
The Commission concluded that the notified transaction would not raise competition concerns, given its limited impact on competition in the markets where the companies are active. Notably, the Commission found that on all the markets above where the parties’ activities horizontally overlap, the combined market shares of the parties would remain moderate and there would remain several viable alternative providers on the market. Furthermore, the Commission concluded that the merged entity would not have the ability or the incentive to foreclose rival providers of backhaul activities. The notified transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure.
More information is available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.11992.
