FedEx’s €4.4 billion bid to take over Dutch rival TNT Express got the green light from the European Commission today.
Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition, had expressed concern in July the deal would raise prices.
In the end, the Commission decided FedEx’s acquisition of the small package deliverer would not hurt competition the companies “are not particularly close competitors and because the merged entity will continue to face sufficient competition” the Commission said in a statement.
The deal will reduce the number of global, integrated courier firms from four to three: FedEx and UPS from the United States and Germany’s DHL. Until recently, FedEx focused on international deliveries into and out of Europe. The acquisition of TNT is aimed at building a European road network.
Approval of the deal will raise some eyebrows in Brussels because FedEx’s rival UPS failed in a bid for TNT in 2012. After months of negotiations, the Commission, under then-competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia, blocked their attempts in January 2013.