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Cable group accepts penalty related to SFR deal in bid to restore ‘constructive dialogue’ with market regulator.
Altice this week accepted an €80 million fine from France’s competition authority for jumping the gun on its 2014 acquisition of mobile operator SFR.
The cable group’s Numericable unit agreed to acquire SFR in June 2014, and received conditional approval from the Autorité de la Concurrence at the end of October.
In a statement on Tuesday, the regulator said it uncovered evidence that Numericable influenced SFR’s strategic decision-making before the deal was cleared. Such practices are against the law.
"The denounced practices, which aimed to make the new entity operational as soon as possible after obtaining clearance of the transaction, were performed in good faith, in the midst of legal uncertainty," said Altice, in a statement on Tuesday.
Similar violations were uncovered in relation to Numericable’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile France.
Altice said it has decided to accept the fine, the first of its kind to be imposed in France, and a first in the world in terms of the size of penalty and the scale of misconduct.
"This settlement demonstrates the group’s eagerness to restore a constructive dialogue with the regulator," said Altice, adding that it is also keen to limit its financial exposure.
"The group is focusing on its key avenues for growth, which include investing in and deploying very high speed fibre optic and 4G/4G+ networks, and investing in content, such as news, cinema and sports broadcasting rights," the company said.
