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EU: Altice accused of breaking rules in Portugal telecoms merger

By  |  May 18, 2017

The European Union’s antitrust regulator on Thursday formally accused Dutch telecommunications company Altice NV of implementing its merger announced in 2014 with PT Portugal SGPS SA before formally logging the deal for review with EU authorities.

The EU cleared the deal in April 2015 but said it now suspects the companies began implementing the merger before winning approval and in some cases before even registering the deal with authorities in February 2015.

The Netherlands-based holding company notified the Commission in February 2015 of its plans and the Commission cleared the transaction with conditions in April 2015. Should it find Altice jumped the gun on implementing the merger, the EU could fine the company up to 10% of annual revenue, Altice’s 2016 consolidated group revenues were 23.5 billion euros ($26.2 billion).

Full Content: Reuters

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