The Competition Authority instead sealing of SFR offices … – The World

Le Monde | 04/02/2015 at 13:41 • Updated 04/02/2015 at 4:23 p.m. | By Sarah Belouezzane

SFR-Numericable has undergone a descent teams from the competition authority Thursday, April 2. According to AFP citing union sources of headquarters offices were placed under seal. According to our information, the authority examines whether the teams of both operators began mergers before getting his définifitif green light. Contacted by Le Monde , teams of Bruno Lasserre, president of the institution, have declined to comment.

Begun to 10 am, the search is still on course. Computers and hard drives of executive committee members were seized. According to trade union sources, investigators are then lower down in the hierarchy, visiting divisions such as Marketing, for example.

If the facts are confirmed, the new operator may be fined of up to 5% of its turnover. It reached 11.4 billion euros in 2014, the fine would rise to over 500 million. However, there would be a priori no risk to the merger, well into today, questioned.

The teams of the two operators had, by 27 October, when of the final agreement to the merger, the right to discuss but never one to work directly with the merger.

According to our information, it is complaints from competitors that have brought the authority of the competition to ask questions about the organizational conditions of the merger between SFR and Numericable. According to them, offers the fixed marketed in the month of November attest to the fact that the teams of the two groups worked together. The deadline is far too vourt to them.

Started in February 2014, the battle for redemption SFR was epic. She opposed the billionaire Patrick Drahi, Altice owner, parent Numericable Martin Bouygues, owner of Bouygues Telecom. Concluded in April it ended with the victory of Mr. Drahi which bought SFR for a little more than 13 billion euros.

It turns out that this would be a complaint of competitors have awakened the suspicions of authority

The time seems agitated for Numericable-SFR:. the operator is in fact also involved in a dispute with its suppliers. The inter-company mediation was seized by the operator providers.