Vj-35/1999/10
MAGYAR TELECOM, TELHOLDING / JÁSZ-TEL
The Magyar Telecom (hereinafter: MATEL) and the Telholding applied for an authorisation of the Office of Economic Competition to acquire the shares of JÁSZ-TEL. In their application they referred to the fact that the transaction does not create and strengthen a dominant position, does not impede the formation and development of the competition either in the present time or under the market conditions which are expected in the liberalised period in the near future.
MATEL is a Dutch holding company having majority shares in two local wired telecom service operators on the Hungarian market, furthermore it is the owner of Telholding which has no turnover realised in 1998.
Based on their aggregate net turnover in the previous business year the undertakings concerned were obliged to notify their transaction under the relevant rules of the Competition Act. JÁSZ-TEL, similarly to the applicants, is a local telecom service operator.
Since the two undertakings, controlled by MATEL, and JÁSZ-TEL have 100 per cent market share on their own geographic markets of local voice telephone service the concentration will not be increased by the transaction. Although the service providers involved might be competitors on the market of value added or data transmission services in national wide their small joint market share (4. 8 and 3. 2 per cent respectively) in this respect does not result in market dominance.
Before deciding on the case the Competition Council made a deep investigation concerning the effect of the transaction in the present time and also in the liberalised period and pointed out that in 1998 the undertakings concerned had 7.7 per cent joint market share on the national market of voice telephone service therefore the dominance of the newly created undertaking could not be expected. The Competition Council authorised the planned concentration.
June 15, 1999. Budapest
dr. Bodócsi András sk.
Fógel Jánosné dr. sk.
dr. Sólyom Eszter sk.
Szabó Györgyi