At the same time, the Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed transaction in the other affected Member States (i.e. Poland, Sweden and the UK), concluding that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) outside Denmark given the low market shares of the parties in these markets.

Danish Crown and Tican are both vertically integrated food companies with activities at every level within the value chain for pig meat, including pig breeding, slaughtering, meat processing and in supplying fresh pig meat.

Their activities span several European countries including Denmark, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

On 3 June 2015, Danish Crown and Tican notified the Commission of the proposed merger. On 22 June 2015, the DCCA requested that the Commission refer to it the assessment of the proposed transaction.

The DCCA put forward various competition concerns in certain Danish markets related to pig meat.

The DCCA further explained that it would be well placed to review the competition effects in Denmark of the proposed transaction given, for instance, its proximity to and specialist knowledge of the markets and experience in handling previous cases related to the same markets.

The evidence gathered by the Commission confirmed that the merger threatens to affect significantly competition in Denmark, where Danish Crown and Tican are currently the two largest competitors. The Commission therefore decided to partially refer the merger to the Danish Competition Authority, which will deal with the case under national law.

The Commission's investigation of the merger's impact outside Denmark did not highlight any competition concerns. Therefore, the Commission cleared the transaction outside Denmark under the normal merger review procedure.

Further Reading

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