30.12.2014   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 466/7

1.

On 19 December 2014, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertakings Edenred SA (France), Hermes Mineralol-GmbH (‘Hermes’, Germany) and Familien-Gesellschaft Eckstein mbH Verwaltungs-KG (‘Eckstein’, Germany) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the Merger Regulation joint control of UNION TANK Eckstein GmbH & Co. KG and UNION TANK Eckstein GmbH (together ‘UTA’, Germany), by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   Edenred: provision of prepaid corporate services, design and management of solutions related to employee benefits, expense management, incentive reward and management of public social programs,

—   UTA: issuance and management of fuel and service cards for customers active in commercial goods and passenger transport,

—   Hermes and Eckstein: family-owned holding companies without business operations.

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved. Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under the Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in this Notice.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by e-mail to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number M.7475 — Edenred/Hermes/Eckstein/UTA to the following address: