Separately, Germany's Federal Cartel Office said the transaction needed to be registered with authorities in Brussels.

KPN said earlier it would sell its German unit E-Plus to Telefonica Deutschland for 5 billion euros (4.2 billion pounds) in cash, helping create a stronger competitor to bigger players Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone.

(Reporting by Anneli Palmen; Writing by Jonathan Gould; Editing by Christoph Steitz)