Federal Court allows TPG merger

The Federal Court has declared that the proposed merger between TPG and Vodafone would not substantially lessen competition. Specifically, Justice Middleton declared that the ‘acquisition by [Vodafone] of all of the ordinary shares in [TPG Telecom]’ as proposed in the Scheme Implementation Deed ‘would not have the effect, and would not be likely to have the effect, of substantially lessening competition in any market in contravention of section 50 …’

The ACCC opposed the merger, concerned that ‘with this merger, mobile data prices will be higher than they would be otherwise’. It stands by its decision to oppose the merger and is ‘carefully considering the judgment.

See ACCC media release.

Plenty of media to choose from on this one:

• Daniel Ziffer and Nassim Khadem, ‘Telcos Vodafone and TPG can merge after court clears barrier’ (ABC News, 13 February 2020)

• Nassim Khadem ‘Australian consumers may never see a fourth player in Australia's mobile market, so are we worse off?’ (ABC News, 14 February 2020)

• Sarah Danckert, ‘No regrets: ACCC's Sims defends blocking Vodafone-TPG tie-up after court clears merger‘ (SMH, 13 February 2020)

• Sarah Danckert, ‘Vodafone to bide time ahead of possible ACCC appeal to tie-up' (SMH, 13 February 2020)

• Euan Black, ‘Consumers to benefit from TPG-Vodafone merger as competition heats up‘ (The New Daily, 13 February 2020)