Vantage Towers, which manages around 20,000 sites in Germany, signed an agreement with 1&1 to grant access to thousands of locations through to 2025. But the deal stalled following Vodafone’s move to take Vantage Towers private in 2022, in a joint venture with infrastructure investors GIP and KKR, which consolidated control of the towerco.
In its preliminary legal assessment, the Bundeskartellamt (BKartA) found that Vodafone and Vantage’s actions appear to have intentionally delayed 1&1’s efforts to roll out its own mobile network, hindering market competition and reinforcing Vodafone’s dominance in Germany.
“According to the information available to us at this stage, the delay and its negative effects on competition in the relevant markets could, and in view of the prohibition of abusive practices under competition law, should indeed have been avoided,” said Andreas Mundt, president of the BKartA.
“At the current stage, we are considering using our powers as a competition authority to enforce the provision of the sites which have not yet been made available.”
The competition watchdog found that 1&1 was only able to access “a small fraction of the contractually agreed sites” while Vodafone has significantly expanded its own network, upgrading 5G sites that were allegedly meant to be used by 1&1.
The sites in question are part of 1&1’s efforts to become Germany’s fourth mobile network operator. The delays, the regulator argues, have severely hindered the company’s ability to compete, both in building out its infrastructure and in securing spectrum allocations from the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), Germany’s telecoms regulator.
According to the BKartA, Vodafone and Vantage could have taken several steps to mitigate the delays, such as prioritising 5G upgrades on alternative sites or allocating more internal resources to meet their obligations to 1&1.
The watchdog argued that the companies acted in a way that aligned with Vodafone’s broader commercial interests, stalling a competitor’s rollout while strengthening its own market position.
Negotiations between Vodafone and the regulator have been ongoing since late 2023, to reach a commitment agreement. However, the Bundeskartellamt said the proposals tabled by the companies fell short of what had originally been contractually agreed and were ultimately deemed unsuitable.
As part of its preliminary assessment, the authority is now considering not only issuing a formal ruling that the conduct was anti-competitive but also compelling Vodafone and Vantage to provide the outstanding sites within three years.
A final decision is expected in mid-2025, pending the companies’ formal responses.
