Brussels no longer fears distortion of competition: the EU validates the takeover of the second shareholder of Fnac Darty by the Chinese giant JD.com for more than 2.2 billion euros

Chinese e-commerce giant JD. com announced on Tuesday that it had obtained a conditional agreement from the European Union for its acquisition, for an amount of 2.5 billion dollars (2.24 billion euros), of the German electronics retailer Ceconomy, second shareholder of the French group Fnac Darty. The group says it plans to finalize the transaction by November 12.

This acquisition will allow one of the largest Chinese retailers to expand outside its domestic market thanks to the flagship electronics brands owned by Ceconomy - MediaMarkt and Saturn. A source close to the matter told Reuters last month that the European Commission, the EU's competition authority, was preparing to approve the deal under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which targets unfair foreign state aid. The Commission was initially concerned that the subsidies received by JD.

com from China are a source of distortion of competition in the internal market of the European Union. Commitments with a “validity period of 10 years” But, in a press release, the European executive listed a series of commitments made by JD. com, including, for example, carrying out intra-group transactions between JD.

com and Ceconomy at market conditions. "The Commission found that these commitments fully and effectively remedied the distortion resulting from the foreign subsidies identified (...) The commitments have a validity period of 10 years", underlines the Commission.

The Chinese group added that these measures will prevent any cross-subsidisation of JD's European activities. com. “Our ambition is to help Ceconomy accelerate its growth in a sustainable manner, further strengthen its competitive position in Europe and continue to innovate in an evolving retail market,” said Sandy Xu, CEO of JD.

com, in a press release.

Machine-translated from French