EU’s Vestager Warns of Telecoms Merger Risks to Competition (1)

Big telecoms mergers in Europe would cut competition and distort the bloc’s prized single market, the European Union’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager warned, in an apparent rebuttal of calls in a new EU report for more consolidation.

“No evidence suggests that more concentrated national markets lead to better outcomes,” the EU’s Vestager said at a conference in Brussels on Thursday. “To the contrary, it would lead to less competitive national markets and to a more fragmented single market.”

Vestager’s comments come after a recent report from former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta to EU leaders, which recommended consolidation for ...