The EC imposed remedies on the merger to address competition concerns.
A transaction announced in November 2019: In France, the Altice group controls the operator SFR, including the wholesaler SFR FTTH which operates in less densely populated areas of the country. In November 2019, Altice announced its intention to acquire the wholesale-only operator Covage, which provides fibre networks in less densely populated areas of the country. The operation would result in a merger with SFR FTTH.
The EC had competition concerns: On 27 November 2020, the European Commission authorised the merger, following an investigation which highlighted competition concerns. The EC was concerned about horizontal overlaps in the Fibre-To-The-Office (FTTO) market, and about vertical integration due to SFR’s retail activities. SFR could potentially deny access to Covage’s network to other retail operators.
SFR’s commitments: The EC accepted the remedies offered by SFR to address the concerns. SFR commits to divest 25 subsidiaries corresponding to Covage’s business in 30 areas, representing about 95% of Covage’s FTTO business. It also commits to offer a transitional service agreement, so that the divested business has access to all assets and services required to operate competitively while it becomes fully independent from SFR FTTH.
