TIM's former network: KKR's clearance rested on a promise, not on a condition. Now Brussels is challenging it
19 October 2026, 18:18
Today the European Commission sent KKR, the American investment fund that controls FiberCop, a statement of objections: the document in which Brussels sets out, on a preliminary basis, what it is alleging. FiberCop is the company that owns the fixed-line network sold by TIM in 2024. According to the Commission, during its review of that purchase KKR allegedly gave "inaccurate or misleading" information about the long-term contracts under which the other operators rent the network: KKR maintained that they could only be changed with their agreement. KKR rejects the accusation, says the information was correct and points out that there is no final decision.
Partly on the strength of that information, on 30 May 2024 Brussels cleared the purchase without conditions. The issue to be examined was access to the network for those who sell internet services without cables of their own: the Commission had ruled out any worsening precisely because of the contracts already signed with, among others, Fastweb and Iliad. Once the deal had closed, some operators complained to Brussels about price increases imposed by FiberCop on those contracts without their consent. On 24 July 2025 the Commission opened an investigation.
Why did such an important guarantee remain a statement by the buyer? A condition is written into the decision and binds the buyer to comply with it. A statement, by contrast, is only checked afterwards: when the operators report the increases. And that "afterwards" has a ceiling. The EU Merger Regulation, Regulation 139 of 2004, punishes anyone who supplies inaccurate information, even merely through negligence, with a fine capped at 1% of its worldwide turnover. The same regulation allows the Commission to revoke the clearance.
Who owns the network? FiberCop belongs to a company controlled by KKR, the largest shareholder. The other shareholders are the Canadian pension fund CPP, the Abu Dhabi public investor ADIA, the Italian infrastructure investor F2i and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which holds 16% but no control rights. In 2023 the government justified the ministry's entry into the network as a defence of the "national interest". To protect their contracts, the operators turned to Brussels.
And who pays? At the end of June 2026 FiberCop managed 13.4 million active lines: homes, shops and offices connected to the internet by TIM, Fastweb, Iliad and the other companies that rent the network. When access costs more, an operator can either cover the difference by cutting its own margin or pass it on to the subscription. In July 2026 Fastweb, Wind Tre, Iliad and Sky wrote to AGCOM, the Italian communications regulator, that the wholesale increases in FiberCop's new price lists would end up in the prices paid by customers.
So the question, for the European Commission: if in 2024 access to the network was the doubt to be resolved, why were the terms of those contracts, prices included, left to the word of the buyer, instead of being made one of the conditions of the clearance?
In 2024 KKR was telling Brussels that those contracts could only be amended with the operators' agreement. According to the companies that rent the network, FiberCop, controlled by the same fund, changed the prices on its own.
This article was prompted by a news item published in Il Sole 24 Ore on 19 October 2026.