Division (3)

The acquisition of Moulinex’s assets by SEB took place within the framework of receivership proceedings involving the Moulinex group. The Commission adopted two Decisions on the merger on 8 January 2002. In the first, the Commission referred examination of the effects of the merger on competition in France to the French competition authorities, pursuant to Article 9 of the merger Regulation. In the second, pursuant to Article 6(2) of the merger Regulation, it authorised the merger in the other countries subject to the licensing of the Moulinex trade mark to independent third parties in nine countries of the European Economic Area (Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and Greece). The Court of First Instance of the European Communities annulled the authorising Decision as regards the countries for which no commitments had been given, namely Spain, Finland, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom^f1. This new Decision re-examines the competitive impact of the transaction in those five countries.