On Wednesday 14 April, the European Commission authorised the acquisition by the Schwarz Group of certain waste management companies belonging to the Suez group in Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland.
This authorisation is conditional on the sale of Suez’s lightweight packaging sorting business in the Netherlands.
The Schwarz Group and the waste management companies belonging to the Suez group are active in the waste management chain in several countries.
The Commission was concerned that the proposed acquisition as initially notified would significantly reduce competition in the market for the sorting of lightweight packaging in the Netherlands.
In particular, the Commission’s investigation showed that the merged entity would become by far the largest player in the market.
To address the concerns, the Schwarz group proposed to divest the entire Suez ‘lightweight packaging sorting’ business in the Netherlands, including Suez’s lightweight packaging sorting plant in Rotterdam and all assets necessary for its operation.
These commitments completely remove the overlap between the activities of the Schwarz group and those of the Suez group’s waste management companies concerned in the field of lightweight packaging sorting in the Netherlands, the Commission said.
The German Schwarz group owns the retailers Lidl and Kaufland, among others. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)