Brussels, 17/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised the US investment fund KRR, specialised in buying up companies, to acquire Vendex KBB, a Dutch non-food retail trade company. The latter operates 1800 sales points in seven EU Member States under different trade names including "Hema", "Bijenkorf", "Keur", "Praxis", "Brico", "M&S", "Hunkemöller", "Dixons", "Dynabyte" and "Prijstopper". A priori, the operation did not raise any competition problems in that none of the KRR investment companies is present in the retail trade sector. The Commission nonetheless examined to what extent Wincor Nixdorf, a major supplier of electronic systems for the retail sector in Europe controlled by KRR, could become the exclusive supplier of electronic retail systems (printers, card payment terminals, scanners, touch-screens, etc.) to the detriment of the other competitors. It concluded that, even if Wincor Nixdorf were the exclusive Vendex supplier, the operation would not reinforce its position on the market and would not significantly affect its competitors, given the small percentage of total purchases of such systems not only within the EU but also in the Netherlands, its main market.