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Competition Commission: Green light in the Allianz deal – European Loyalty

The green light in the acquisition of exclusive control by Allianz over the European Credit AEGA “was given by the Competition Commission.

In particular, at a meeting of the Competition Committee in a Department on June 24, 2022, it was decided (under decision no. 782/2022) unanimously the approval of the notified concentration, pursuant to article 8 par. 3 of Law 3959/2011, which concerns the acquisition of exclusive control by the company “ALLIANZ SE” over the company “EUROPEAN FAITH AEGA” (hereinafter “European Credit”), given that this concentration, although falls within the scope of par. 1 of article 6 of Law. 3959/2011, does not cause serious doubts as to its compatibility with the operating requirements of the competition in the individual markets to which it relates.

The above-mentioned merger notification will change the control of the company European Credit, since the company ALLIANZ SE will acquire its sole control.

In this case, the relevant geographical market is taken into account in relation to the relevant markets of life insurance and non-life insurance services, with the exception of branch 6 of article 4 of Law 4364/2016, “Ships”, for which the relevant geographical market is considered at least European.

The concentration is essentially horizontal (life insurance and non-life insurance premium markets) as it involves companies that are real or potential competitors in certain relevant markets, without, however, raising serious doubts as to its compatibility with its operating requirements. competition in these markets.

A merger does not have a vertical effect in the sense that it does not give rise to a single entity, which either operates first at different levels of a value chain or strengthens its position in a market while operating in upstream or downstream markets. It should be noted that regarding the purchase of the insurance agency, the Notifier has no presence in it.

The acquired company has subsidiaries that are active in markets[1], whose relationship with the notifying markets of the Announcer is neither horizontal (competitors in the same relevant market) nor vertical (suppliers or customers). Considering, on the one hand, that these markets are not even closely related to the markets in which the Notifier operates (ie they are not complementary services or belong to a range of services generally purchased by the same set of consumers for the same end use), and on the other hand the non-existence of monopoly power of the parties in any of these markets, there is no need to further examine the possible cumulative effects of the merger.

[1] Purchases of corporate finance, venture capital, investment banking, “facility services” in business premises (cleaning, storage, maintenance) and production / wholesale of electricity.

Source: Capital

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