The UK's exit from the EU in 2021 empowered the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to probe big global mergers concurrently with the European Commission.
So far, 6 acquisitions in digital markets have faced such parallel merger reviews, and in 4 of them, the Commission and the CMA diverged.
Cullen International's comparison report looks at these cases side by side, shedding light on the different conclusions often reached by the two authorities.
Stay tuned over the next weeks, as we look back at each case that saw divergent outcomes!
Complimentary copies of the detailed case summaries from Cullen International’s Antitrust & Mergers Database, plus the full comparison report, are available upon request.
EU-UK divergence on digital mergers – Case 1: Amazon/iRobot
Amazon’s abandoned acquisition of iRobot is the latest global merger on which the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reached different decisions.
In January 2024, Amazon abandoned its proposed $1.7bn (€1.58bn) acquisition of iRobot, a supplier of robot vacuum cleaners, after failing to secure clearance for the transaction from the European Commission.
In contrast, the CMA unconditionally cleared the transaction already in June 2023, after its initial phase I merger review did not identify any competition issues.
EU-UK divergence on digital mergers – Case 2: Microsoft/Activision Blizzard
Microsoft’s $68.7bn (€63.9bn) acquisition of video game developer and publisher Activision Blizzard was by far the largest deal ever in the gaming industry as well as the largest acquisition ever made by one of the US big tech companies.
After their respective in-depth phase II merger investigations, the Commission and the CMA both concluded that the transaction would harm competition in the nascent cloud gaming market.
However, the two authorities diverged on the remedy.
EU-UK divergence on digital mergers – Case 3: Booking/eTraveli
The CMA unconditionally cleared Booking’s proposed €1.63bn acquisition of eTraveli in September 2022, but the transaction was blocked by the Commission one year later.
One of the Commission’s key findings was that flight online travel agencies (OTAs) like eTraveli are an important customer acquisition channel for hotel OTAs in the EEA.
The CMA reached the opposite conclusion. It reckoned that flight OTAs are not a particularly significant customer acquisition channel for hotel OTAs in the UK.
EU-UK divergence on digital mergers – Case 4: Meta/Kustomer
The last case of EU-UK divergence we look at is Meta’s $1bn (€921m) acquisition of Kustomer, a customer relationship management (CRM) software provider.
It received unconditional clearance in the UK following an initial review in September 2021.
In contrast, the Commission’s in depth investigation concluded that the acquisition would harm competition in the CRM software market.
The Commission eventually cleared the transaction in January 2022, subject to a set of access commitments by Meta.
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