The European Commission announced, on Tuesday 4 July, that it had authorised, subject to conditions, the proposed acquisition of GfK (Germany) by Advent, notified on 11 May 2023.
Through its subsidiary NielsenIQ (United States), the investment fund Advent Tepco (Netherlands), itself controlled by Advent (United States) is the leading provider of retail sales measurement services for fast-moving consumer goods.
GfK is the leading provider of consumer panel services in the European Economic Area (EEA), particularly for conducting consumer surveys. GfK is active in the retail measurement services sector for slow-moving consumer goods.
The parties are active worldwide.
Having examined the proposed merger initially notified, the European Commission was concerned that the proposed transaction would seriously affect competition by reducing it on the market for retail measurement services for fast-moving consumer goods and on the market for consumer panel services.
To address these concerns, Advent has offered to commit to remedies consisting of a divestiture of GfK’s consumer panel services business, excluding its Russian business, which the Commission believes will facilitate the divestiture.
Selling these activities would allow for a new competitor to emerge.
Advent has also offered to provide transition services to the purchaser following the sale of these businesses for a period of up to one year, which may be extended for up to a further two years.
The European Commission considers that these commitments would resolve the potential distortions of competition on the relevant markets that would have resulted from the merger as initially notified.
Link to case: https://aeur.eu/f/7xa (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)