The European Commission has unconditionally approved the proposed creation of a joint venture between Vodafone, Telefónica and Everything Everywhere in the field of mobile commerce in the UK. Following its investigation, the Commission concluded that the proposed joint venture will not likely lead to a significant impediment to effective competition in the European Economic Area.

Telefónica, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere are allowed to create a joint venture between Vodafone, Telefónica and Everything Everywhere in the field of mobile commerce in the UK. The European Commission has unconditionally approved this joint venture on the basis of the EU Merger Regulation. Recently, on the other hand, the EU General Court confirmed the Commission's fine imposed to Telefónica for having abused its dominant position.

Last 13 April 2012, the European Commission initiated an in-depth inquiry following the results of a preliminary investigation which had indicated potential competition concerns in the nascent markets of mobile payment applications supply (so-called "mobile wallets"), mobile advertising and related data analytics services. As result of the in-depth investigation, the European institution concludes that the joint venture will not likely lead to a significant impediment to effective competition in the EEA within the meaning of the Merger Regulation.

Telefónica UK, Vodafone UK, and Everything Everywhere – a joint venture created by the merger of T-Mobile UK and Orange UK that was cleared by the Commission in March 2010 - are three of the four mobile network operators in the UK. The newly created joint venture would provide various mobile commerce services to businesses, including mobile payment transaction services, mobile marketing services, and associated data analytics services.