After the interrogation of a billion-pound merger between Amsterdam-based food delivery giant Takaway.com and Just Eat, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared the deal to go ahead.
As part of its investigation, the CMA said it considered information suggesting that Takeaway.com might have been well-placed to re-enter the UK market and compete with Just Eat, had the merger not gone ahead.
The deal, which has been in process since July 2019, was given the go-ahead by Just Eat shareholders in January 2020.
Just Eat is one of the main food delivery firms in the UK market, while Takeaway.com operates in 11 countries overseas, including the Netherlands and Germany, but has not been active in the UK since exiting in 2016.
Both companies’ platforms link customers to hundreds of restaurants or food outlets, where they can browse takeaway options and order online.
The CMA said that after investigating concerns over market dominance, and scrutinising large volumes of the two companies’ own internal business documents, it is satisfied that there is “not a material likelihood that Takeaway.com would have re-entered the UK in the future, had the merger not gone ahead.”
Colin Raftery, Senior Director of Mergers at the CMA, explained: “Millions of people in the UK use online food platforms for takeaways and, where a merger could raise competition concerns, we have a duty to rigorously investigate whether customers could lose out.
“In this case, we carefully considered whether Takeaway.com could have re-entered the UK market in future, giving people more choice. It was important we investigated this properly, but after gathering additional evidence which indicates this deal will not reduce competition, it is also the right decision to now clear the merger.