Pinsent Masons has supported its longstanding client Telefónica Germany in the successful conclusion of a contract with the mobile service provider Drillisch AG, under which Telefónica transfers part of its mobile network capacity to Drillisch. This transfer was necessary to satisfy EU Commission conditions imposed as part of the merger control procedure for the acquisition of mobile services competitor E-Plus.

The EU commission had already issued its conditional approval for the merger in July 2014 but this was subject to various conditions. One of these conditions required the hand-over of 20% of the capacity of all mobile networks which would otherwise be under the control of Telefónica Germany after the E-Plus merger. The conclusion of the contract with Drillisch cleared the way for final approval of the merger between Telefónica Germany and E-Plus, which approval was achieved on 29th August 2014. The European Commission confirmed that the agreement with Drillisch AG met the conditions of the EU commission in full. The merger of Telefónica Germany and E-Plus, which took effect on 1st October 2014, has created the largest (by customer) mobile network provider in Germany.

As part of an advisory team, Pinsent Masons supported Telefónica Germany, particularly the in-house legal team under Alexander Krenzler, with the implementation of the EU commission's requirements and negotiations leading to signature of the contract with Drillisch.

For background: Telefónica Germany is a longstanding client of Pinsent Masons. Lawyers at the firm's Munich office have advised Telefónica Germany on numerous technology transactions (M&A, Outsourcing and mobile network co-operations). For this project, the team at Pinsent Masons was led by Dr. Florian von Baum.