Brussels, 25/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - On 21 May, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition of the French Vedici group, which comprises 23 private health establishments in western France, by the British investment group 3i. While there are no horizontal overlaps between the parties' activities, the proposed transaction will, however, create a vertical relationship between Vedici's activities in the hospital care sector and the provision of bio-medical tests by the laboratories of the Labco network, which is controlled by 3i through Labco SAS. Following an investigation, the Commission found that the Labco laboratories would not have the capacity to restrict access to the provision of such tests. Furthermore, the Commission found that hospitals belonging to the Vedici group would have no incentive to limit other laboratories' access to them (for instance, by choosing to subcontract their requests for tests only to Labco laboratories or by entering into exclusive contracts with them), given, among other things, the vast number of other clients (individual patients and public hospitals) who also use laboratories to carry out medical tests. The Commission, then, authorised the acquisition, which was notified on 14 April 2010. (F.G./transl.rt)