The Belgian Competition Authority opens abuse of dominance proceedings over a below thresholds acquisition, in the first case following the Towercast precedent (Proximus / Edpnet)

The Belgian Competition Authority ( BCA ) announced yesterday that it would review the acquisition of Edpnet by telecommunications operator Proximus under the rules prohibiting abusive conduct by dominant companies (see, attached press release). Edpnet supplies broadband communications services and found itself in judicial reorganisation proceedings because of financial difficulties. The enterprise court of Ghent, Dendermonde section, had sanctioned the sale of the activities of Edpnet to Proximus, but this has not prevented the BCA from opening its inquiry. As the BCA pointed out, its move against Proximus on the basis of the “abuse of