Brussels, 21/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the acquisition by RTL Newmedia, a subsidiary of CLT-UFA, of a stake in PrimusPower, a German e-commerce company. PrimusPower is a subsidiary of Primus-Online, itself controlled by the German distribution group Metro through BHS Holding. The company markets on the Internet products and services such as computer equipment, software, television sets and other products. RTL Newmedia is a subsidiary of the German TV channel RTL, which mainly operates in the multimedia sector and electronic commerce. It is controlled by CLT-UFA.
European competition services felt that the accumulation of RTL Newmedia and PrimusPower market shares on the emerging electronic commerce sector for consumer goods was low, and that "in the market for Internet advertising, the increase in market share is also not significant despite the presence in that market of Bertelsmann, which has a stake in CLT-UFA".