The European Commission today (6 November) opened an in-depth investigation into whether Hutchinson 3G’s bid to take over Telefónica Ireland would harm competition in the country.

“The initial market investigation indicated that the proposed acquisition may substantially lessen competition in the retail mobile telephone market in Ireland”, the Commission said today in a statement.

The Commission has a provisional deadline of 24 March 2014 to either approve or block the merger.

The review of the deal, which would merge two of Ireland’s four mobile networks, is being followed closely by the telecoms industry.

Many of the larger telecoms operators complain that the Commission has applied too strict a standard when assessing telecoms mergers, preventing firms from building up scale and reducing costs through cross-border consolidation.

In December 2012, Hutchinson 3G gave the Commission wide-ranging concessions in order to gain antitrust approval for its take over of Orange’s mobile business in Austria.