The Spanish telecommunications company, Telefónica, challenged the merger of its competitors Cablevisión and Telecom Argentina, which was authorized by the Commerce Secretariat of the South American country at the end of June.
A company statement distributed on Monday night said the decision reaffirms discriminatory treatment for the rest of the operators, hinders the development of effective competition in the telecommunications market and favors a dominant operator in the sector.
“Telefónica has already initiated the corresponding legal actions in national jurisdictions to challenge a decision that it considers unfair and discriminatory and is analyzing all the international tools at its disposal for the defense of its rights,” the statement said.
The Spanish telephone company considers that the merger “endangers” the investments required by the sector and will have “very serious consequences” for the future of telecommunications in Argentina.
The Argentine National Commission for the Defense of Competition (CNDC) gave its final approval to the merger of Telecom Argentina and Cablevisión, for which it imposed certain conditions such as asset sales.
“Telefónica challenged the decision of the Ministry of Commerce to generate inequities in the sector,” said the Spanish telephone company.
“The resolution does not establish any type of conditions to prevent Telecom from having preferential access to relevant content for the competition in the Argentine territory or has established rules for its commercialization without discrimination for all competitors,” he added.
The merger was authorized after the opening of the market arranged by the liberal president Mauricio Macri, which allows the telephone companies to provide integrated audiovisual services, which is known as “quadruple play”.
Telefonica shares were delisted from the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange this year to raise funds to expand its fiber network in the South American country and take advantage of an improvement in the results of the division.
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