Brussels, 10/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised Belgian company Agfa's acquisition of the Italian company Lastra. The approval follows an investigation into the pre-press sector - which involves preparatory activities prior to the actual printing of books, newspapers, magazines on a printing press. The Commission investigation indicated that the pre-press sector will remain competitive and that end-users will continue to have access to multiple sources of supply and to benefit from continuous technological innovation.
The Commission looked at pre-press equipment used to prepare printing plates and pre-press consumables, such as printing plates and pre-press chemicals, where it found only minor overlaps.
The Commission focused its investigation on analogue and digital plates, where the parties had overlapping activities. As to analogue plates (computer to film, CtF), the Commission concluded that in spite of combined market share of above 40%, competition would not be impeded thanks to the presence of other important players and to the lack of credible risks of unilateral and coordinated effects. First and foremost, analogue plates are destined to practically disappear or remain only as niche products, as CtF is increasingly being replaced by CtP (computer to digital plate). Second, the pre-press sector is characterized by continuous technological innovation, interoperability between different brands of machines and plates (“open systems”).
As to the digital pre-press sector, the Commission's investigation focused on newspaper applications. The concern was raised that Agfa's strong position as supplier of newspaper applications based on its “visible light technology” would be strengthened through the acquisition of Lastra. The Commission found that this concern is not likely to materialise mainly because Lastra is only a marginal player in the newspaper application sector within the EEA in the visible light technology. In addition, “visible light” technology was considered by most market participants as directly substitutable with “thermal” digital technology applied by other major competitors. Agfa's visible light technology will therefore face effective competitive constraints exercised by the “thermal” technology, in which many important suppliers are increasingly active.