The General Court of the EU made its decision on Wednesday, upholding an earlier ruling by a lower court.
This will allow Vodafone to buy some of Liberty Global’s assets, primarily its cable networks in Germany and Eastern Europe.
The deal, announced in 2018, is valued at $22 billion. With this move, Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile operators, intends to challenge former monopolies such as Deutsche Telekom.
However, the deal raised concerns among competitors. They feared that the acquisition could negatively affect competition in Germany and the Czech Republic. However, the European Commission considered that the two companies involved are not direct competitors of each other, and that the deal does not significantly affect market competition.
The current court decision confirms the position of the European Commission and removes the last obstacles to the transaction between Vodafone and Liberty Global.
Source: Reuters
Cover image source: Shutterstock
Source: www.portfolio.hu
