By Elvira Pollina
MILAN (Reuters) – Swisscom offered a second set of remedies to Italy’s antitrust authority at the end of October to win approval for a planned deal to combine its Italian arm Fastweb with Vodafone assets in the country, a letter seen by Reuters showed.
The Italian antitrust authority (AGCM), whose approval is required to complete the deal, opened in September an in-depth review of Swisscom’s 8 billion euro buyout of Vodafone Italia, which would be merged with Fastweb.
AGCM said at the time the merger could restrict competition as it would create a dominant player in Italy’s fixed-line wholesale service market, as well as in retail services for residential, public administration and corporate customers.
Swisscom submitted the fresh set of remedies to factor in some remarks the Italian authority had made during a hearing held on Oct. 25 following a first round of proposals, according to the letter.
Competitors were required to provide their feedback on the proposed remedies by Nov. 4, with Italy’s antitrust now assessing the new package, according to two people briefed on the matter on Tuesday.
In its latest set of proposals, Swisscom offered to give competitors access to Fastweb’s fibre infrastructure to provide connectivity services to corporate and public administration clients, the letter showed.
It also offered to share with rivals all the needed information to ensure a level playing field in any public tenders for phone and connectivity services where the merged entity has a contract in place when the deal is cleared.
Additionally, Swissccom said Fastweb would continue to keep in place existing wholesale contracts through which rivals provide ultra-fast fixed Internet connectivity to residential customers.
Swisscom also said it was available to appoint an independent monitoring trustee to oversee remedies were implemented.
Swisscom, AGCM and Vodafone declined to comment.
The authority is expected to complete its in-depth review of the Vodafone-Swisscom deal by Dec. 10. Swisscom plans to finalise the deal in the first quarter of next year.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Keith Weir)
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