LISBON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Left Bloc (BE) party called for Altice's takeover of Media Capital to be stopped on Tuesday after the European Commission (EC) fined Altice 125 million euros for breaking antitrust rules.
"This verdict proves that Altice has consistently disregarded legal obligations," BE deputy Jose Soeiro told local journalists, after attending a meeting with Altice staff.
"Altice must now be stopped from buying out TVI, which would be another form of market concentration," Soeiro added. "The Portuguese authorities must speak out and stop the deal."
Altice is seeking to buy Media Capital, owner of television company TVI, in a deal being investigated by Portugal's Competition Authority (AdC).
The EC fined Altice earlier on Tuesday for completing its buyout of PT Portugal without waiting for Brussels approval, thus violating European Union (EU) antitrust rules. Altice immediately vowed to appeal the fine.
Altice, a French telecoms group headquartered in Holland, first notified the EC of its intentions to buy PT Portugal in February 2015, with the deal approved in April 2015.
But a subsequent investigation by the EC suggested Altice had completed the deal prior to gaining approval. Furthermore, Altice appeared to have undue influence over PT Portugal prior to the notification.
That influence included instructing PT Portugal on marketing campaigns and using sensitive information not legislated for in the confidentiality agreement.
As Soeiro pointed out, Altice has history here. In 2014 it was fined 80 million euros by the French competition authorities for a similar infraction when it acquired SFR and Virgin Mobile.
PT Portugal is a legacy company of Portugal Telecom, Portugal's sole telephone operator until 1994.
MEO is PT Portugal's main brand, a mobile phone and cable provider. MEO's rivals NOS and Vodafone believe that Altice acquiring TVI would create a monopoly.
