Vodafone chief says UK’s under-fire competition watchdog is ahead of EU

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Vodafone chief executive Margherita Della Valle said that the UK’s competition watchdog was ahead of rival regulators in Europe after winning approval for a £16.5bn merger with Three UK in December.

Valle told the EU’s competition commissioner Teresa Ribera in a recent meeting that the bloc should follow the UK’s example over antitrust policy, she said in an earnings call on Tuesday. “The UK now is making a clearer example of how one can modernise the approach to the telco world,” she said.

Her praise will be a welcome sign of support for the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which has faced criticism from Sir Keir Starmer for allegedly stifling growth. Ministers forced out the CMA’s chair Marcus Bokkerink last month, while the government has called on all of Britain’s regulators to do more to support investment.

Vodafone’s Valle said that the CMA “has clearly recognised that investment in our sector drives competition, and therefore it’s good for the customers”.

The regulator approved the £16.5bn merger of Vodafone’s UK business with CK Hutchison’s Three UK to create Britain’s largest mobile operator with 29mn customers at the end of last year. The merger is expected to complete formally during the first half of 2025.

The CMA has secured commitments from the companies to invest billions to roll out a combined 5G network across the UK as well as agreements to cap prices of some mobile tariffs and data plans.

However, the CMA stopped short of forcing Vodafone to sell any part of the business. The requirements for companies to divest during a merger have hampered previous attempts at European telecoms consolidation.

“All the focus has gone on our network plan, building one of Europe’s best 5G networks,” said Valle. “We are looking forward to bringing this example of this conclusion to European markets. The European Commission is thinking about how to change the merger guidelines for our industry.”

She added that the EU should “broaden the horizon” of its own assessments to allow mergers to happen. “The guidelines in Europe are talking about assessing these mergers in an 18 months to three-year timeframe. We are in a technology industry. We should look at it on a broader time horizon, as the CMA has done.”

She also applauded the work of Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, saying that across the 15 markets it operates, “Ofcom is certainly one of the best, if not the most advanced, regulator this industry has, because they are at the forefront of understanding the technology evolution”.

She added that the UK “starts from a very strong position”.

Valle was talking after the group reported stronger sales growth than expected at the end of last year in a quarterly update, boosted by its performance in the UK, Turkey, South Africa and Egypt. However, shares in the company declined more than 7 per cent on Tuesday because of a fall in revenues in Germany, one of its key markets.