The European Commission (EC) has referred the proposed €31 billion joint venture between Virgin Media and O2 in the UK to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). UK regulators had asked the Commission to transfer responsibility for the case last month, arguing that it was in a better position to make a judgment as the UK is set to leave the single market at the end of 2020. “The CMA has raised competition concerns in a number of UK telecommunications markets, namely the mobile retail and wholesale markets and the leased lines market. In addition, the CMA has said that it would be well positioned to review the transaction for the next expiration of the transition period,” the EC said in a statement. The EC granted the request, stating that the close cooperation between the CMA and the EC meant that the former was well informed of the case and that there would be no interruption of the proceedings due to the transfer. . This means that regulatory approval will now depend on UK national law. The combination of O2's mobile infrastructure and Virgin Media's cable network would immediately create one of the largest telecommunications organizations in Europe, powering the communications of almost 40 million subscribers. The consolidation would also result in savings of £6.200bn and provide the scale and capacity to compete with BT and Vodafone on converged network and Openreach services in the wholesale market. In 2016, the EC blocked a proposed €12.500bn merger between Three and O2 on the grounds that it would reduce the number of UK mobile operators from four to three, although Three has since successfully appealed this decision. However, given the complementary nature of the Virgin Media and O2 networks, approval in this case is much more likely, albeit with conditions. Parent companies Liberty Global and Telefónica have committed to creating 4.000 jobs and 1.000 apprenticeships if they receive regulatory approval and have committed to increasing the combined company's gigabit broadband footprint by an additional one million locations, this bringing the total figure to 16 million, within 12 months of the merger. There are also promises to add an additional seven million homes to "gigabit networks" and cover more than 100 cities by the end of 2021.