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

RTL, RTL2 proposed cooperation agreement 2024

17 January 25 Miklós Kozma

The German competition authority informed RTL and RTL2 about its competition concerns over their proposed cooperation in marketing advertising space on their TV channels. This means that the two broadcasters must abandon the project or risk violating antitrust rules. Although the authority considered the growth of digital media, it concluded that there is limited substitution between TV advertising and digital video advertising.

EP Group/IDS merger 2025

16 January 25 Miklós Kozma

The European Commission unconditionally cleared the acquisition of International Distribution Services (IDS), the parent company of GLS and Royal Mail, by a holding company of Czech entrepreneur Daniel Kretinsky. The Commission’s merger review focused on the Dutch parcel delivery market, where IDS’s GLS competes with PostNL, which Mr Kretinsky indirectly controls.

Google Ads in the Czech Republic 2025

14 January 25 Miklós Kozma

The Czech competition authority closed its investigation into a possible abuse of dominance by Google in the online search advertising market after the company adopted measures to address the authority’s competition concerns. The authority investigated Google for applying its terms of service in an inconsistent and discriminatory manner.

Latest State Aid & Subsidies intelligence

New European Commission confirmed

27 November 24 Peter Dunn

The European Parliament plenary approved the new European Commission, which should be able to take office formally on 1 December 2024. Parliament approved the vote in its plenary meeting, which took place in Strasbourg on 27 November. The plenary vote followed individual Parliamentary hearings for each commissioner-designate.

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.

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