REWE may acquire 67 EDEKA outlets

The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the divestment from EDEKA to REWE of 63 food retail outlets in Berlin and two outlets each in North Rhine-Westphalia and greater Munich.

Andreas Mundt, President of Bundeskartellamt: "Due to the ministerial authorisation the market leader EDEKA can acquire all the Kaiser's Tengelmann outlets. This outcome is not pleasing from a competition point of view but it has been approved on the public interest grounds stated in the ministerial authorisation. Based on the scenario following the ministerial authorisation, the transfer of outlets from EDEKA to REWE even leads to a relative improvement in competition."

The Bundeskartellamt's assessment of the divestment followed after REWE had withdrawn its appeal against the ministerial authorisation and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy had communicated that the conditions of the ministerial authorisation had been fulfilled. The ministerial authorisation has therefore become final and effective. EDEKA can now acquire the company Kaiser's Tengelmann.

Following the acquisition EDEKA is the market leader in all the market areas affected. The divestment of outlets to REWE will therefore not worsen conditions of competition but even lead to structural improvements. On this basis the divestment to REWE could be cleared.

During the preceding conciliation process the mediators and the companies had asked the Bundeskartellamt to explain certain competition law aspects before a possible divestment of outlets to REWE. On the condition that the ministerial authorisation would be final and effective, the Bundeskartellamt had given the parties a first indicative assessment, based on current figures, of in which market areas the transfer of EDEKA outlets to REWE would be unproblematic in terms of competition law. This assessment was used as a competition law framework in the negotiations with the mediator. Provided the relevant data is available, it is the standard practice of the Bundeskartellamt in complex merger projects to provide the parties with a pre-evaluation of the project prior to notification.