Free State Foundation Urges Quick State Reviews of CenturyLink/Level 3
State commissions should speedily review the CenturyLink/Level 3 merger while exercising self-restraint, Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Seth Cooper said in a Monday blog post. Some states already OK’d the $34 billion deal (see 1702140017), but others, including New York…
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and Washington state, have set longer review schedules. State commissions should focus on merger-specific competitive effects, while the FCC analyzes public interest issues, he said. States “should avoid issues unrelated to the transaction and not impose needless administrative expenses or lost market opportunity costs through drawn-out proceedings,” Cooper said. He warned that the state review process can become costly, time-consuming and redundant. “Regulators can become preoccupied with non-merger specific issues and use their leverage to impose regulatory conditions on their approval that are unrelated to the transaction or perhaps more fit for industry-wide rulemakings,” Cooper said.