The
The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments offered by the parties.
The Commission's investigation
The Commission's investigation showed that the merger, as initially notified, would have reduced competition in the markets for the provision of sea freight forwarding services in
In particular, the Commission found that the transaction would have created important vertical links between: (i)
The Commission found that
The proposed remedies
To address the Commission's competition concerns, the parties offered to divest:
All of
A number of assets in metropolitan
These commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission, by removing the vertical link between
Following the positive feedback received in the context of the commitments' market test, the Commission concluded that the transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns.
In the course of its investigation, the Commission worked in cooperation with the competition authorities of
The decision is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments. Under supervision of the Commission, an independent trustee will monitor their implementation.
Companies and products
For More Information
The transaction was notified to the Commission on
The Commission has the duty to assess mergers and acquisitions involving companies with a turnover above certain thresholds (see Article 1 of the Merger Regulation) and to prevent concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it.
The vast majority of notified mergers do not pose competition problems and are cleared after a routine review. From the moment a transaction is notified, the Commission generally has a total of 25 working days to decide whether to grant approval (Phase I) or to start an in-depth investigation (Phase II). If commitments are proposed in Phase I, the Commission has 10 additional working days, bringing the total duration of a Phase I case to 35 working days, such as in this case.
More information will be available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.11143.
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