European court tells Brussels to think again on Ziggo UPC merger

The European Court of Justice has told the European Commission to re-examine its approval for the merger between cable companies UPC and Ziggo, even though the two companies joined forces two years ago.

The original merger was taken to the European court by KPN, which says the commission had not looked properly at the new combine’s market position for sports broadcasting, the Financieele Dagblad reported.

It is unclear what will happen next. The commission can appeal against the court’s decision or can decide to look again at its original ruling.

KPN has welcomed the decision. ‘At the time we thought it wrong that the original ruling on the merger did not take sport content into account,’ a spokesman told the FD.

Ziggo said in a statement that the court’s rejection of the deal is procedural only and that there is ‘absolutely no option’ to break up the new media combine.

Furthermore, the combined group, also known as Ziggo, has since merged with the Dutch arm of the Vodafone group.