By Charlotte Van Campenhout

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone on Friday secured unconditional EU antitrust approval for their advertising joint venture to take on Big Tech.

“The transaction, as notified, would not significantly reduce competition in French, German, Italian and Spanish markets,” the European Commission said in a statement.

Reuters exclusively reported on the imminent EU green nod last week. This is the telecoms sector’s first attempt to take on Meta and Alphabet’s Google in the lucrative online advertising sector and diversify their revenue streams.

Google is the world’s leading seller of online advertising, well ahead of Meta, with the business generating about 80% of its revenue.