European court annuls decision that blocked UK mobile merger The General Court of the European Court of Justice has annulled a decision made in 2016 to block the merger between two UK MNOs, Telefónica O2 and HutchisonThree, on the basis of fears of reduced competition. Four years on, Telefónica is looking elsewhere, planning to merge O2 with Liberty Global’s UK cableco, Virgin Media. But the change in the precedent could have an important broader impact on regulatory attitudes to telecoms mergers in Europe, a saturated region which is likely to see a further round of consolidation, even as incumbents are being disrupted by new entrants with very different business models, such as Iliad. Telia deploys 5G network powered entirely…