Judgments of the General Court in Cases T-58/20, T-64/20, T-69/20

PRESS RELEASE No 193/24 Luxembourg, 13 November 2024 Judgments of the General Court in Cases T-58/20 | NetCologne v Commission, T-64/20 | Deutsche Telekom v Commission and T-69/20 | Tele Columbus v Commission Merger control: the General Court upholds the Commission decision authorising Vodafone’s acquisition of Liberty Global’s telecommunications activities in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania The Commission properly concluded that the merging parties were not competitors in the markets for the retail supply of TV signal transmission services in Germany In October 2018, Vodafone, 1 a British company specialising in mobile telecommunications, television and internet services informed the European Commission that it intended to acquire sole control of the telecommunications activities of Liberty Global in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. 2 In Germany, the transaction consisted of the acquisition of 100% of the shares in Unitymedia, a company providing television and broadband internet services. 3 After having initially raised serious doubts as to the compatibility of the transaction with the internal market, the Commission finally approved the transaction in July 2019. 4 That authorisation was granted on condition that Vodafone complies with its commitments intended to address the competition problems identified by the Commission. Three German undertakings – Deutsche Telekom AG, Tele Columbus AG and NetCologne...