Brussels, 20/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 20 July the European Commission approved the proposed joint venture between LSG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and the Swiss company Gate Gourmet. The new joint venture will incorporate the activities of the two companies in the airline catering and related business activities (catering, airport assistance and cleaning) at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport by limiting the JV to servicing airlines operating flights to and from the Paris airports. The Commission has concluded that the transaction would “not significantly impede” effective competition in the in-flight catering market in the Paris airports region. The Commission explained that the proposed transaction would lead to an overlap between the parties' activities in the market for in-flight catering services in Charles de Gaulle airport and possibly on a wider market for airports in the Paris region, but it would not result in the creation of a single dominant firm. The Commission illustrated that the proposed joint venture and Servair (the catering firm of Air France) were the only two major airline catering providers at Charles de Gaulle, but the market investigation has shown that recent new entrants exert competitive pressure on the two market leaders. In addition, these recent entrants seem to indicate low barriers to market entry, added the Commission, which also ruled out the risk of coordination of activities between the joint venture and Servair.