The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shifted the deadline for its investigation into the proposed merger of Vodafone and CK Hutchison’s local telecoms units to 7 December, potentially adding another eight weeks to an already extended process.

On opening the investigation in April the CMA set a deadline of 18 September. A month later this was moved to 12 October before being punted towards the end of the year today (2 August).  

The regulator blamed the initial delay on the fact it had not received some required documents or information from CK Hutchison, through this issue has since been resolved.

Announcing the latest timetable change, the CMA explained the inquiry group looking into the proposed merger “considers that it will not be possible to complete the investigation and to publish its final report within the revised reference period [ending 12 October]”.

The need for additional time was put down to the “very wide scope of this inquiry and the technical and regulatory complexity of the sector,” alongside the amount of technical material provided on the joint network plan, and the need for an “econometric estimation of consumer demand for mobile services, which is based on granular and voluminous third-party data”.

It also cited the need to assess the implications of an agreement between Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone announced in early July.

Although the new deadline has been set to 7 December, the CMA noted the group aimed to complete the process as soon as possible with a chance the report is published early.