1.   

On 19 October 2018, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).

This notification concerns the following undertakings:

—	Vodafone Group Plc (‘Vodafone’, the United Kingdom),

—	UPC Česká republika, s.r.o. (‘UPC CZ’, the Czech Republic), Unitymedia GmbH (‘Unitymedia’, Germany), UPC Magyarország Kft (‘UPC HU’, Hungary), and UPC Romania S.R.L. (‘UPC RO’, Romania), belonging to the Liberty Global plc group.

Vodafone acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of the whole of UPC CZ, Unitymedia, UPC HU and UPC RO.

The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares.

2.   

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for Vodafone: provider of mobile telecommunications services, and in certain countries, provider of fixed voice, fixed broadband, and retail television services,

—   for UPC CZ, Unitymedia, UPC HU, and UPC RO: providers of fixed voice, fixed broadband, and retail television services in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Romania. In Germany and Hungary, provider of mobile telecommunications services.

3.   

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

4.   

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. The following reference should always be specified:

M.8864 — Vodafone/Certain Liberty Global Assets

Observations can be sent to the Commission by email, by fax, or by post. Please use the contact details below:

Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu

Fax +32 22964301

Postal address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË