VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Europe's major antitrust regulator has opened an "in-depth investigation" on Hutchison's $14 billion acquisition of Telefonica UK's O2 operations. According to The Wall Street Journal, top European Union officials have been warning that mobile-phone mergers in concentrated markets can lead to higher prices and less options for consumers.

Ruling out North America's claim that European antitrust authority is going in an anti-US bias in dealing with Google and Apple, the European Competition Commissioner (ECC) Margrethe Vestager has termed it as a misleading notion of the world's largest economy. Vestager has been criticized in the US media for her role in opening multiple cases against the US corporate giants Google, Apple, Amazon and Starbucks during the past one year. Vestager has become the target of the US media as European regulators are protecting EU companies from the US competition.

Party politics seems set to trump concerns about the competence and suitability of several candidates for the European Commission when lawmakers pass judgment on Jean-Claude Juncker's most controversial nominees this week.

Europe's antitrust chief hit back on Friday at media reports suggesting that he had bowed to political lobbying by delaying a final decision on alleged anti-competitive behavior by Google.