By Najat Kantouar


The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority plans a further investigation into Vodafone Group's planned joint venture of its U.K. operations with Three U.K. as it believes the deal could leave consumers and businesses worse off.

The regulator said Friday that the deal--which seeks to combine two of the four U.K. mobile network operators--could lead to higher prices for customers and impact investment in U.K. mobile networks.

The agreement would bring their 27 million customers under a new, single network provider and would raise competition concerns, the CMA said.

"Whilst Vodafone and Three have made a number of claims about how their deal is good for competition and investment, the CMA has not seen sufficient evidence to date to back these claims," the CMA Phase 1 Decisionmaker Julie Bon said.

The regulator has given the companies five working days to respond with a solution, otherwise the deal will be referred to a more in-depth investigation, the regulator said.

Vodafone and Three UK said that the investigation was an expected step in the process and that they are confident the transaction will deliver significant benefits for competition, customers and the country.

"We will review the potential concerns raised by the CMA and look forward to continuing to engage constructively with them as we set out the benefits of the merger for competition and for U.K. consumers and businesses," the companies said in a joint statement.


Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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