U.K. authorities want to review the merger of France Telecom SA and Deutsche Telekom AG’s British units, telling European Union authorities that the deal may significantly affect competition in the country.

The Office of Fair Trading asked the European Commission, the EU agency currently investigating the deal, to transfer the case to the U.K., the OFT said in a statement today. The EU will rule by March 1 on the request.

An Egyptian court will issue a verdict on Wednesday on Orascom Telecom’s (ORTE.CA) (ORTEq.L) attempt to block an offer by France Telecom (FTE.PA) to buy all of Egyptian telecom operator Mobinil’s (EMOB.CA) outstanding shares.

An Egyptian appeals committee has rejected a request by Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA) that the regulator block France Telecom’s (FTE.PA) latest bid to buy all of Mobinil (EMOB.CA) shares, the regulator said on Saturday.
France Telecom subsidiary Orange Participations earlier this month offered 245 Egyptian pounds ($44.63) for each share in Mobinil, [...]

Switzerland’s competition watchdog will examine closely the planned merger between France Telecom’s Orange and Danish-owned Sunrise to ensure the grouping does not dominate the Swiss mobile market.
Along with Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange are the main players in Switzerland’s mobile phone market. The planned merger, with a market share of 40 percent, [...]

(Cellular-news.com) France Telecom has been ordered to repay around EUR 1 billion (US$1.5 billion) of illegal state aid back to the French government. The actual ruling is for between EUR798 million and EUR 1.14 billion, but also includes interest charges since the state aid was offered.
France Telecom benefited from advantageous tax arrangements between 1994-2002 where [...]