EU follows UK’s dubious pattern of scrutiny over Inmarsat-Viasat merger

EU antitrust regulators have reached the same conclusion as Britain’s top regulators in its review of Inmarsat’s proposed merger with Viasat: that the combined company might create too small an oligopoly in the inflight connectivity market. We find this so-far tentative conclusion surprising given the increasing number of IFC providers that are beginning to offer services from Low Earth Orbit. While the market incumbents would shrink to four – Anuvu, Intelsat, Panasonic Avionics and Viasat/Inmarsat – SpaceX has made steady progress in IFC with Starlink, OneWeb is investing in IFC offerings for its nearly completed constellation, and Amazon is poised to follow with Kuiper in a few years time. Even with the Viasat/Inmarsat merger, the number of IFC providers for commercial aviation is set to roughly double over the next three years. The EU set a deadline of June 29 to decide.

SOURCE: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/eu-antitrust-regulators-investigate-viasats-inmarsat-bid-2023-02-13/