competition

Competition in the communications sector is complex and fast-changing. This presents both risks and opportunities to providers, as well as challenges for public authorities.

Our competition intelligence services help organisations understand the changing face of competition. We help them grasp the commercial and policy implications of new developments, and make decisions with efficiency and confidence.

Offered on a subscription basis, the service includes alerts, reports, and a database of case summaries written in English. You can also contact our competition law experts at any time for answers to specific questions.

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antitrust & mergers

Our Antitrust & Mergers service makes it simple to follow key trends in competition law and its enforcement. Covering the telecoms, media and postal sectors, as well as the digital economy, our intelligence helps leaders:

Stay informed on developments in abuse of dominance cases, covering infringements such as excessive pricing, predatory pricing, margin squeeze, self-preferencing, and tying and bundling.
Access data on the actions taken across the EU to address potentially anti-competitive agreements, such as network co-investment and sharing, and online sales restrictions in distribution agreements.
Track merger control cases to understand the wider implications of market consolidation for competition in Europe.

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state aid & subsidies

Our State Aid & Subsidies service offers intelligence on EU rules designed to ensure that public support measures in telecoms and the digital economy do not unduly distort competition and private investment. The principal focus of the service lies in the application of state aid rules to subsidised broadband deployment and take-up measures.

Subscribe to our State Aid & Subsidies intelligence service to:

understand the allowances and limits of public funding for broadband under EU state aid rules
follow the enforcement of these rules in relation tother developments, such as unfair advantages in spectrum auctions and big tech taxation
gain insights into key EU funding initiatives in telecoms and the digital economy, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)
understand the implications of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR)

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Latest Antitrust & Mergers intelligence

Telefónica/DTS merger 2015

20 November 24 Carmen Mateas

Update: The Spanish competition authority opened a proceeding into a suspected infringement of the commitments that telecoms incumbent Telefónica made to secure clearance for its 2015 acquisition of pay TV operator DTS (Canal+). To date, Telefónica has received a total of €17.5m in fines for failing to comply with its 2015 commitments.

Google/Anthropic partnership 2024

20 November 24 Miklós Kozma

Update: The UK Competition and Markets Authority decided that Google’s partnership with Anthropic, a US-based developer of AI foundation models, does not qualify for investigation under UK merger control rules. The authority found that the partnership did not allow Google to exercise material influence over Anthropic.

EU candidate-commissioner for competition confirms plan to review horizontal merger guidelines

19 November 24 Janne Kalliala

At her European Parliament confirmation hearing, Teresa Ribera provided little additional detail on competition policy beyond what was outlined in her mission letter. One clear priority is the plan to review the European Commission’s horizontal merger guidelines, with a focus on ensuring adequate consideration of resilience, efficiency, innovation and investment.

Latest State Aid & Subsidies intelligence

Infratel adjusts market failure areas of the Italia a 1 Giga state aid measure

07 November 24 Alessandro Mauro

The adjustment corrects an error in the original mapping of market failure areas and will enable aid beneficiary operators to meet the target of covering 3.4 million households by June 2026.

Explainer: Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)

21 October 24 Janne Kalliala

The CEF is an EU funding instrument operational from 2021 to 2027. It aims to support the development of high-performing, sustainable and efficiently interconnected trans-European networks in the energy, digital and transport sectors. This Explainer focuses on CEF Digital, to which €2.1bn is allocated.

Connecting Europe Facility (CEF): EU funding plans in the digital sector until 2027

21 October 24 Janne Kalliala

The European Commission's second work programme for CEF Digital allocates around €865m in EU funding between 2024 and 2027 to support fast and secure digital connectivity networks.

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get in touch

For more information about our Competition services, please contact:

Janne Kalliala phone: +39 348 69 18 879 janne.kalliala@cullen-international.com