EU lays out antitrust case against Telefónica’s E-Plus deal

Telefónica’s takeover bid in Germany would raise mobile prices by up to a third for some customers, according to a hard-hitting antitrust objection from Brussels that will raise alarm in Europe’s consolidation-hungry telecoms sector.

The European Union’s top competition authority served a tough complaint against Telefónica’s €8.6bn offer for E-Plus, KPN’s German mobile unit, signalling that the deal would be blocked without big asset sales and concessions. The Spanish group’s bid to become Germany’s top operator is subject to one of the most important regulatory decisions in European telecoms since the privatization of state monopolies in the 1980s. A wave of rumored in-country deals across Europe turn on antitrust boundaries laid down in the case.