The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court yesterday revoked the approval granted by the Federal Cartel Office at the end of December 2019 for the joint venture between Telekom and EWE for the expansion of fiber optics in northwest Germany, which operates under the name “Glasfaser Nordwest”. The court considers the Federal Cartel Office’s justification for the approval to be “unsustainable”. The Higher Regional Court’s decision does not conclude the proceedings. It is certain that the case will go to the next higher instance and thus to the Federal Court of Justice.

Dr. Stephan Albers, Managing Director of the German Broadband Association (BREKO), comments on the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court’s decision to revoke the approval for the joint venture between EWE and Telekom:

“Cooperations are a very important building block for the nationwide expansion of fiber optics in Germany, as they reduce overbuilding and accelerate expansion. We therefore welcome cooperations such as the joint venture ‘Glasfaser Nordwest’ between EWE and Telekom, which has pledged to build 1.5 million fiber optic connections to buildings and homes.

We view the decision with concern, particularly in light of the fact that the joint venture offers all interested companies non-discriminatory open network access in order to provide end customers with future-proof fiber-optic Internet. This is all the more true as the German Federal Cartel Office had obliged a company to guarantee the principle of “equivalence of input” (EoI) for the first time when originally approving the joint venture. The EoI concept stipulates that wholesale customers have access to the same material and personnel resources as the sales departments of EWE and Telekom. This means, for example, that the same databases for information on connections and the same technician resources for provisioning and fault clearance can be used, thereby significantly reducing the risk of abuse of a dominant market position.

There is also a risk that cooperative expansion models will generally be called into question and potential expansion partners will be deterred. Unfortunately, this is a bad signal for fiber optic expansion in Germany.”