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By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Liberty Global and
Telefonica have not offered concessions to European
Union antitrust regulators reviewing their plan to combine their
British businesses, the European Commission website showed on
Friday.
The U.S. cable operator and the Spanish telecoms provider
want to merge Virgin Media and O2 in a $38 billion deal to
better compete with market leader BT.
Nov. 12 was the deadline for the two companies to offer
concessions should the EU competition enforcer voice concerns.
The Commission's website showed none had been submitted.
That could suggest either the deal is heading for
unconditional clearance after the EU's preliminary review ends
on Nov. 19, or the Commission could open a four-month long
investigation after that date.
Unlike deals between mobile operators, those between a cable
operator and a telecoms provider typically trigger few to no
competition concerns from competition regulators.
A Commission spokeswoman referred to the EU executive's
website when asked about concessions.
Liberty Global and Telefonica said in a joint statement that
the deal should be swiftly approved.
"We have specifically addressed all of the issues raised in
submissions we have made to the CMA, Ofcom and the EU. We have
made a compelling case to allow a clearance of the transaction
as soon possible," they said, referring to two UK watchdogs.
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last month
asked to take over the review, citing the deal's impact in the
UK and after Brexit. The Commission has yet to decide on its
request but may be reluctant to hand it over in order to ensure
a harmonised policy across the bloc.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Mark Potter
)
