The European Commission’s decision to review a $2.5 billion telecoms deal illustrates the executive branch’s resolve to scrutinize any future acquisition of EU businesses by foreign companies that have received outsized financial support from their governments.
Last week, Brussels officials announced they would probe a state-controlled United Arab Emirates company’s recent acquisition of a European telecom business over concerns that the UAE player received foreign subsidies that would distort competition in the bloc’s telecoms industry if the deal were allowed to go ahead. It is the European Commission’s first investigation into an M&A transaction under the new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR).
