Denmark: Setting a precedent

TeliaSonera and Telenor abandoned plans to merge their Danish operations due to staunch regulatory opposition, sending shockwaves through the industry, throwing other proposed M&As in Europe into doubt. European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager insists that deals will be judged on their own merits, and that the remedies offered by Telia and Telenor, whose merger would have reduced the number of big operators to three from four, were not sufficient to avoid harming competition. With the Commission due to issue a decision on O2/3UK by 18 April, the industry won’t have long to wait before it learns if Denmark is a blip or a portentous precedent.