EU hands over decision on CARREFOUR purchase of Ahold Polish stores

The European Commission yesterday said that Polish regulators will now take a decision to clear plans by Carrefour to buy Ahold's Polish store network. The companies asked the EU executive to approve the deal but the Polish competition authority requested that Brussels hand it over, arguing that possible problem areas only affected Polish markets and did not impact on other EU nations. The Commission said it had decided to refer the entire deal to Poland, including some parts where it did not see antitrust concerns, mentioning markets for daily consumer goods and local motor fuel sales where combined market shares would not exceed 15%.