Brussels, 13/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission confirmed that the acquisition by Moulinex of SEB would not pose any difficulties for competition in Spain, Finland, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom. This re-examination had been undertaken following the Court of First Instance ruling, last April, which annulled the Commission decision to give an unconditional go-ahead to the operation in the five countries believing that the European executive had not provided enough justifications for its decision. The ruling also confirmed the decision to return the dossier to the French authorities for the assessment of its impact on the French territory and the conditions that had been imposed in a certain number of European countries. During the new investigation, the Commission carefully examined the position of each competitor in each market in terms of turnover, supply of products and value of brands offered. It reached the same conclusion as previously, namely that SEB does not hold or will not strengthen any dominant position in any of the markets concerned.