Orange, MasMovil face EU antitrust warning over merger, source says

BRUSSELS: French telecoms provider Orange and Spanish peer MasMovil are set to get an EU antitrust warning about their 18.6-billion euro ($20.3 billion) merger, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

Orange, the second largest telecoms provider in Spain, and fourth-ranked MasMovil announced the deal in July 2022, seen by the sector and analysts as a test case of whether the European Commission will ease its tough line on mergers that reduce the number of big telecom operators in a market to three from four.