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Italy: Antitrust watchdog wants control of Hutchison-VimpelCom deal

By  |  February 29, 2016

Italy’s competition regulator wants to lead a review into the planned merger between Hutchison and VimpelCom’s operations in Italy, which is currently being scrutinised by the EU competition authority, Reutersreported.

“The European Commission has received a referral request from the Italian authorities and we are assessing it,” spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said in an email.

In December, the EC turned down a request from the UK’s competition authority to lead the probe into Hutchison 3 UK’s proposed merger with Telefonica O2 UK.

The commission said it was better placed than the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority because of its experience in assessing deals in the mobile sector, pointing out that it has run investigations in recent years in both mobile and fixed sectors in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

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