UOKiK (the Office of Competition and Consumers Protection) rarely denies permission for mergers: since 2004, it has only refused permission four times and granted conditional permission eight times.
UOKiK must be notified of any merger or take over of businesses with a combined turnover of €50 million in Poland or €1 billion worldwide. It can either give unconditional or conditional permission, or refuse permission.
However, UOKiK recently refused Orzel permission to acquire Baterpol because they are the only two businesses processing dangerous wastes, and their merger would have denied choice to the businesses collecting scrap materials.
UOKiK also ruled that the acquisition of Kotlin by Agros Nova would have a negative influence on competition on the jam market, and made its permission conditional on:
- the sale by 31 August 2010 of Kotlin's jam production line with rights to Sorella trademarks
- no sales of Kotlin brand jam for three years after such a sale
- level of at least 70% of the average sales of Sorella jam (and the average expenses of marketing them) for 2007 and 2008 is maintained until Sorella line is sold.
Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the businesses being fined €10,000 for each day of delay.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 11/03/2009.
