Publications

On October 26, 2017, the lower court of appeals of the European Commission (the Commission), the General Court, reversed the Commission’s approval of Liberty Global plc’s (Liberty) already-completed acquisition of Ziggo N.V. (Ziggo). The Commission’s 2014 clearance decision had been appealed by a rival cable provider which successfully persuaded the General Court to reverse on the grounds that the Commission failed to complete a proper investigation and did not properly analyze whether pay-TV sports channels could constitute a separate market from other pay-TV channels, such as film channels, and raise vertical concerns. At least for the near term, companies should expect the Commission to be particularly cautious and diligent in its investigations, and to be even more deferential to the concerns raised by any third parties during its market testing. As a result, merger reviews in the European Union are likely to take even more time and require more information from notifying parties than they previously have.