Mergers: Commission approves proposed acquisition of Delvita by REWE group

The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

REWE is active in food and non-food wholesale and retail, travel and tourism in a number of European countries. Delvita is a Czech subsidiary of Delhaize "The Lion" Nederland BV, which is a subsidiary of the Delhaize group, active primarily in food retailing. The main horizontal overlaps between REWE and Delvita relate to the retail market for daily consumer goods through modern distribution channels (supermarkets, hypermarkets and discounters) in the Czech Republic.

The Commission's investigation found that the merged entity would still face competition from a number of other strong retailers on the Czech national market. Even on the individual local markets, where the combined market share of the parties would exceed 25% in five local markets (Cheb, Jablonec nad Nisou, Plzeň-město, Strakonice and Trutnov), the proposed transaction would not adversely affect effective competition due to a significant presence of major competitors, planned new openings of outlets by competitors and the considerable economic potential of the Czech retail market.

More information on the case will be available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/m91.html#m_4590