1.   

On 7 November 2018, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).

This notification concerns the following undertakings:

—	Pizza Hut International, LLC (‘Pizza Hut’, United States of America), belonging to the YUM! Group (United States of America),

—	Telepizza Group, S.A. (‘Telepizza’, Spain).

Pizza Hut enters into a full merger within the meaning of Article 3(1)(a) of the Merger Regulation with Telepizza.

The concentration is accomplished by way of agreements.

2.   

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for Pizza Hut: operation, directly or through master franchisees and franchisees, of pizza restaurants under the Pizza Hut brand in more than 100 countries over six continents,

—   for Telepizza: operation, directly or through master franchisees and franchisees, of pizza restaurants under the Telepizza brand in more than 20 countries, notably Spain and Portugal.

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.

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. The following reference should always be specified:

Case M.9025 — Pizza Hut/Telepizza

Observations can be sent to the Commission by email, by fax, or by post. Please use the contact details below:

Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu

Fax +32 22964301

Postal address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË