Belgium Closes Landmark Abuse Probe Into Below-Threshold Merger

Johan Ysewyn’s commentary was included in a Global Competition Review article examining the abuse of dominance investigation into Proximus’ €20.5 million acquisition of edpnet. The article covers the decision by Belgium’s Competition Authority that the incumbent telecommunications operator’s divestment of edpnet to smaller rival Citymesh restores competition.

Johan said the decision shows that beyond the “rather burdensome” route of Article 22 merger referrals – whereby member states can ask the European Commission to review deals that fall below both domestic and EU notification thresholds – the abuse of dominance route can be a “very efficient way” of reviewing transactions that fall below the thresholds.

Johan also noted that the Article 22 referrals process takes much longer than the eight months it has taken for Proximus to divest edpnet since the Belgian enforcer opened its probe in March.