Belgium blocks Interkabel – Telenet transfer
May 28, 2014
The Belgian Council of State has ruled against the deal for Interkabel to transfer around 800,000 TV subscribers to Telenet.
The Council ruled in favour of Belgacom, which brought the complaint claiming the municipalities involved should have held an open tender rather than exclusively negotiate with Telenet. The telco said the cable networks of the Interkabel consortium are owned by a number of municipalities, and under European law, as public bodies, they should have conducted an open tender.
In 2008 Telenet agreed with Interkabel to acquire the TV activities of the municipalities, consisting of four networks – Integan, Intermedia, PBE and WVEM, serving about 800,000 homes.
Belgacom is now free to start civil proceedings in order to have the agreement annulled and claim damages.