With News The Competition Authority's investigation into the investment fund Ardian's acquisition of Míla was reported on in the Competition Authority's report of 21 July. Comments were also sought on the remedies proposed by Ardian to address the Competition Authority's preliminary assessment of the potential adverse effects of the acquisition. The Competition Authority received detailed submissions from a number of parties, including competitors, customers and the National Broadcasting Authority, and Ardian and Síminn have responded to these submissions.
In the interests of the investigation, the aforementioned information (excluding confidential information) is made available through this news release, providing an opportunity for further perspectives.
As described in the authority's press release on 21 July, the Competition Authority issued an objection notice to the parties to the merger, setting out a detailed preliminary assessment of the competitive effects of the sale. This was done following a thorough investigation. The preliminary assessment found that, a priori, the termination of the ownership ties between Síminn and Míla would, as such, be positive from a competition perspective. The sale of Míla by Síminn, however, involves the companies entering into a long-term wholesale agreement that binds them in various ways. It was the Competition Authority's preliminary assessment that this constituted serious competition restrictions which would counteract the merger's positive effects and harm the interests of consumers and business life in a very important area of commerce. This and other alleged harmful effects of the merger are described in more detail here.
After receiving the statement of objections, Ardian approached the Competition Authority and requested settlement talks. The Competition Authority agreed to these talks, the purpose of which is to explore whether Ardian's proposed remedies can resolve the competition concerns that would otherwise arise from the merger. Subsequently, Ardian put forward proposed remedies „in order to protect and promote competition in the markets concerned and to address the concerns expressed by the Competition Authority in the aforementioned objection document regarding the competitive effects of the acquisition in question.“Ardian and Síminn also sent comments to the Competition Authority regarding the authority's statement of objections.
The Competition Authority subsequently decided to conduct a market test and sent a request on 21st. July, the Competition Authority decided to conduct a market test and sent a letter to telecommunications companies and the Telecommunications Authority, requesting the views of these parties on Ardian's proposals for conditions and on the comments from Síminn and Ardian on the authority's objection document.
As the merger concerns a broad group of customers in the telecommunications market, including consumers, as well as government and stakeholders in various fields, the Competition Authority also considered it important to give everyone the opportunity to submit their views. This was stated in a notice published by the Authority on its website on 21 July.
The following comments were received:
Telecommunications Authority ( here )
Nova ( here )
The fibre-optic cable ( here )
Vision ( here )
Agility ( here )
Connects ( here )
Farice ( here )
Icelandic tours ( here )
The Circle ( here )
Míla ( here )
Summarised, most of the aforementioned consultees consider that Ardian's acquisition of Míla will, as things stand, distort competition and that Ardian's proposed conditions are insufficient to remedy the resulting competition restrictions.
The Competition Authority gave Ardian and Símann the opportunity to comment on the above-mentioned reviews. Símann's comments were received. 4th August and Ardian 6th August The companies' comments, among other things, dispute the views of consultees that Ardian's proposals are insufficient to address the competition concerns arising from the sale of Míla. In addition, the Competition Authority has received a letter from Ardian, dated 2 August 2022, which discusses the substance of this matter in more detail. It is available here.
This matter concerns the regulation of the telecommunications market for the coming decades, and therefore the public interest is at stake. In light of this, those who wish to do so are given the opportunity to submit written observations on the comments from Síminn of 4 August, the comments from Ardian of 6 August, or any other observations that may be relevant to the investigation of the case. Due to the short time remaining in the investigation, submissions are requested by the supervisory authority no later than at 5 p.m. tomorrow, 10th August.
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