EU Found Wrong to Bar WorldCom Merger

U.S. telecommunications giant WorldCom, now called MCI Inc., won a moral victory when a European court ruled that European Union antitrust regulators should not have issued an order blocking its aborted bid in 2000 for rival Sprint Corp.

Although the companies have no intention of reviving their aborted tie-up, which was also opposed in Washington, the decision makes it easier for MCI to pursue any future deals by wiping the regulatory slate clean in Europe.

The Court of First Instance in Luxembourg said the European Commission “no longer had the power to adopt the decision” prohibiting the merger because the deal had been abandoned by the parties a day before.