The Competition and Markets Authority needs another three months to produce its findings on the proposed Vodafone and Three merger.
The original period for the CMA’s report to be prepared and published was September 18. This has now been extended to December 7.
Inquiry group chair Stuart McIntosh stated that this was because the Inquiry Group considered it was no longer possible to complete the investigation and publish its final report by the September 18 deadline.
“In coming to that conclusion, the Inquiry Group has taken into account the following combination of factors, while also appreciating the need to be as comprehensive, thorough, and fair as possible within the tight statutory timeframe”
Macintosh said the factors that required the extension were:
Wide scope
“The wide scope of this inquiry and the technical and regulatory complexity of the sector, which has required the CMA to acquire a detailed technical understanding of the operations of the mobile network operators, mobile ‘virtual’ network operators, and the network sharing agreements between the MNOs.
Technical material
“The amount of technical material (including a Joint Business Plan and Joint Network Plan for the merged entity underpinned by detailed economic modelling) provided by the parties in support of their submissions regarding their ability and incentive to realize efficiencies—in particular, the parties’ merger simulations and sensitivity analysis (these were provided at such a time that the Inquiry Group was not able to take this evidence into account for the purposes of working papers shared with the parties, but will need to be considered in the Provisional Findings);
Network sharing agreement
” The public announcement on July 3, 2024 (after the Main Party Hearings), of the new Beacon 4.1 agreement between Vodafone Limited and VMED O2 UK Limited, which will require the Inquiry Group to assess the implications of the agreement, including gathering and analyzing further evidence from third parties; and the need to complete the CMA’s econometric estimation of consumer demand for mobile services, which is based on granular and voluminous third-party data.
Secial reasons,
“In the exercise of its discretion under section 39(3) of the Act, the Inquiry Group has decided that these factors fall within the category of ‘special reasons’ justifying an 8-week extension of the revised reference period.
“Following this decision, the period within which the report on this reference is to be prepared and published is now December 7, 2024. The Inquiry Group aims to complete the inquiry as soon as possible. As such, the report may be published in advance of this date”.