BRUSSELS – The EU General Court dismissed a case brought by Deutsche Telekom and some others on Wednesday, upholding a decision in a lower court that allowed an acquisition by Vodafone (NASDAQ: VOD) of some Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA) assets to go forward.
In 2018, Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile operators, agreed to pay $22 billion for Liberty Global’s cable networks in Germany and eastern European markets to challenge the dominance of former monopolies like Deutsche Telekom.
Rivals said they were concerned the deal would hurt competition in Germany and the Czech Republic. However, the European Commission concluded that the two companies were not competitors and that the acquisition would not affect competitive conditions.
