20/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the proposed creation of a joint venture by France's Lactalis and Switzerland's Nestlé. The two parties have said that they would transfer their chilled dairy desserts activities to the joint venture in a number of European countries. The operation would give rise to an overlap in France on the market for milky desserts but the Commission concluded from its market investigation that the proposed transaction would not lead to a significant reduction of competition as Lactalis' products-marketed under the brand Bridélice-are aimed at a different sector of the market (diet products) than Nestlé's products. The Commission also found that private labels- partly supplied by Lactalis-will still be able to exert a constraint on the new entity as retailers can easily source their private labels from other suppliers than Lactalis.