3.4.2012   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 99/10

Prior notification of a concentration

(Case COMP/M.6543 — Ahold/Flevo)

(Text with EEA relevance)

2012/C 99/05

1.

On 23 March 2012, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which Koninklijke Ahold NV (the Netherlands), the parent company of Ahold Group (‘Ahold’), acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of the whole of Flevo Deelnemingen III BV (‘Flevo’, the Netherlands), the holding company of bol.com NV (‘bol.com’, the Netherlands), by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—

for Ahold: offline and online retailing of foodstuffs, daily consumer goods, health and beauty care products, wine and liquor,

—

for Flevo (bol.com): online retailing of books, e-books, DVDs, music, computer games, toys, customer electronics, computers and consumer software in the Netherlands and Belgium.

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope the EC 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. 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 COMP/M.6543 — Ahold/Flevo, to the following address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

J-70

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘EC Merger Regulation’).