Denouement in the “Belgian Towercast Case”: the Belgian Competition Authority terminates its proceedings against Proximus following the divestiture of EDPnet to Citymesh

On 6 November 2023, the Belgian Competition Authority (“BCA”) announced that it had closed its investigation into a possible abuse of dominance by Proximus following the sale of EDPnet to Citymesh. The BCA had opened an ex officio investigation in March 2023 based on the recent Towercast ruling of the European Court of Justice’s (“ECJ”), which confirmed that mergers that are not subject to prior control can be assessed ex post under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) prohibiting abuses of dominance. In April 2023, the BCA’s Prosecutor General requested that the BCA impose interim measures, which were subsequently adopted in June 2023. On 6 November 2023, Proximus and Citymesh executed and completed an agreement under which Proximus divested EDPnet Belgium to Citymesh. Following this agreement, the BCA decided that the case no longer warranted investigation and announced the termination of its ongoing proceedings.