Focus Antitrust: Competition Weekly Email Alert - 14 November 2012

IN THE NEWS

OFT refers cash and carry merger to Competition Commission

The OFT has referred the completed acquisition by Booker Group plc of Makro Holding Limited to the Competition Commission for further investigation due to the OFT's concerns that it could reduce competition between cash and carry outlets. Click here.

Commission approves Outokumpu's acquisition of Inoxum, subject to conditions

Following a Phase II review, the European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Inoxum, the stainless steel division of ThyssenKrupp of Germany, by the Finnish stainless steel company Outokumpu. The approval is conditional on the divestiture of Inoxum's stainless steel production facility in Terni, Italy. The Commission had concerns that the combination of the two largest suppliers of cold rolled steel products would have given the merged entity the power to raise prices. The conditions are intended to address these concerns. Click here.

EU

Mergers

The European Commission has approved the joint-venture between ARM, Giesecke & Devrient and Gemalto, subject to conditions. The Commission had concerns that the transaction could have enabled ARM to exclude competitors of the joint venture from the market for trusted execution environments (TEE) for consumer electronic devices. The conditions require ARM to provide hardware information to competitors on the same conditions as to the joint venture to enable them...