"A merger like this would not have been allowed in serious jurisdictions such as the United States or the United Kingdom," Mr Fels told The Age and Herald. "The reduction of four to three players will make life a lot cosier for the three players." He called for Parliament to send a strong legislative message to the courts on merger law or Australia would face an increasingly concentrated economy. Vodafone launched court action last year after the ACCC found the two companies should not be allowed to merge because it would stop any chance of TPG becoming Australia’s fourth mobile network operator - a new competitor to Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. The ACCC believed a fourth mobile player would drive down prices for mobile phone plans given a new entrant like TPG would need to win customers off Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

A key problem for the ACCC's case was that TPG canned its plans to build a mobile network after the government banned its technology provider Huawei shortly after the merger was announced. TPG executive chairman David Teoh told the court he had no intention of now building that network as it could no longer afford to without the much cheaper Chinese technology. A merger like this would not have been allowed in serious jurisdictions such as the United States or the United Kingdom," Former ACCC boss Allan Fels In finding in Vodafone and TPG's favour, Justice John Middleton found that adding more mobile players to a market did not necessarily create more competition if those new players were not strong competitors with the incumbents. Mr Sims defended the ACCC's poor track record at court when it came to competition cases, especially when compared to the success it sees on consumer rights cases where it is often very successful. "These are important issues - you’re determining whether the Australian economy has a very concentrated mobile sector or has the one we were hoping would result. That’s why we are here, that’s why we have to take these cases as we see them," Mr Sims said.

He also pointed the support the Vodafone and TPG tie-up received from its competitors, saying that Telstra had welcomed the merger when it was first made public, because the industry would prefer orderly pricing and not disrupters like TPG. "Vodafone is already in the market it won’t want to disrupt it." "Australian consumers have lost a once-in-a-generation opportunity for stronger competition and cheaper mobile telecommunications services with this merger now allowed to proceed": ACCC chief Rod Sims. Credit:Eamon Gallagher Mr Sims said it was too soon to say if the ACCC would appeal the ruling. Justice Middleton will release his full set of reasons in about two weeks. Other industry players are worried about the lack of competition in the sector, with David Tudehope, the chief of Macquarie Telecom slamming the court's ruling.

"This decision will only worsen the lack of competition, which has meant our industry continues to under serve and overcharge customers." "Now that the decision has been made to allow the merger to go ahead, the government and ACCC will need to reconsider how to improve retail and wholesale competition in mobiles." Justice Middleton said on Thursday the combined Vodafone and TPG would be better able to compete with Telstra and Optus. "It is not for the ACCC or this court to engineer a competitive outcome." Justice Middleton said more players in a market did not equate to players who could compete equally.

Justice Middleton also had praise for TPG's reclusive billionaire founder, saying while he found Mr Teoh had not used extensive paperwork to make large business decisions his approach to business was sound. "Mr Teoh had a more informal and fluid approach ... he may do whatever it takes to progress his business, but he is obviously not foolhardy." Mr Teoh welcomed the judgment, saying the parties would work to finalise the merger as soon as possible. Vodafone Hutchison Australia chief executive Inaki Berroeta said it was a great outcome for the Australian economy as it would allow for greater investment in next generation networks including 5G. "We have ambitious 5G rollout plans and the more quickly the merger can proceed, the faster we can deliver better competitive outcomes for Australian consumers and businesses."

Mr Berroeta said the lengthy process to obtain competition approval for the merger and the Huawei ban had both unfortunately given "free kicks" to competitors for some time.