On Wednesday 30 September, the European Commission authorised the proposed acquisition of Ingenico by Worldline, two French players in the payment services sector. The authorisation is conditional upon full compliance with a series of commitments offered by the parties.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President responsible for Competition Policy, said the merger “would have reduced competition in the services facilitating in-store card payments in Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg”. The remedies announced “will preserve competition in these markets and thus ensure these services continue to be offered at competitive prices”.
The Commission’s investigation found that the combination of Worldline’s and Ingenico’s payment acquisition activities would raise competition concerns in Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria. Worldline is already the main player in each of these Member States.
In order to address the competition concerns, the companies proposed to divest certain activities related to the acquisition of POS payments and the supply and management of POS terminals. The divestment concerns: - Ingenico’s point-of-sale payment acquisition and POS terminal supply and management business in Austria; - Ingenico’s point-of-sale payment acquisition activity in Belgium, which includes the supply and management of point-of-sale terminals; - part of Worldline’s payment acquisition business in Luxembourg.
For Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg, the measures include the necessary support services to enable these activities to function.
These commitments “fully address the Commission’s concerns” as they remove almost entirely the overlaps between the payment acquisition activities of Worldline and Ingenico in the three countries concerned and between their POS terminal supply and management activities in Austria and Belgium. The commitments ensure that the current level of market competition will be maintained. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)