Commission approves merger between Posten and Post Danmark, subject to conditions

Further information:

This was the first merger by incumbent postal operators in the European Union, hence the conditionality of the endorsement. The Commission concluded that the transaction, as modified by the commitments, would not significantly impede effective competition in the EEA.

Posten was wholy-owned by the Kingdom of Sweden. Post Danmark (PDK) was owned bt the Kingdom of Denmark and CVC.

While the Swedish postal market was fully liberalied in 1993, the Danish market was yet to be liberalised. The Commission threfore considered the potential effects of the merger on the liberalisation of the Danish postal market.

The European Commission cleared on 21 April 2009 the proposed merger of Sweden's Posten and Post Danmark, both incumbent postal operators. The decision was conditional upon the commitment of the parties to divest assets and customer contracts covering their entire overlap in the domestic standard business to business (B2B) parcel delivery services market in Denmark.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Competition: Merger Cases: M.5152 [Posten AB and Post Danmark] http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/case_details.cfm?proc_code=2_M_5152

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