13.7.2010   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 188/11

Prior notification of a concentration

(Case COMP/M.5858 — Carrefour/Marinopoulos/Balkan JV)

Candidate case for simplified procedure

(Text with EEA relevance)

2010/C 188/07

1.

On 5 July 2010, 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 Carrefour SA (‘Carrefour’, France), and Marinopoulos Holding Sàrl (‘Marinopoulos’, Luxembourg), belonging to the Marinopoulos group, acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the undertaking CM Balkans BV (‘Balkan JV’, the Netherlands) by way of contract and purchase of shares in a newly created company constituting a joint venture, respectively.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—

for Carrefour: food and non-food retailing in own-operated or franchised grocery stores (hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount and convenience stores) in Europe, Latin America and Asia,

—

for the Marinopoulos group: food and non-food retailing, manufacture of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, retailing of clothes, cosmetics, optical products and specialty coffee in a number of countries in Europe, including Greece and Cyprus,

—

for the Balkan JV: operation of 4 supermarkets in Bulgaria and the development of hypermarkets and supermarkets under the Carrefour brand in the Balkans, namely Bulgaria, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the EC 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 EC Merger Regulation (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the 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 email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number COMP/M.5858 — Carrefour/Marinopoulos/Balkan JV, 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’).

(2)  OJ C 56, 5.3.2005, p. 32 (‘Notice on a simplified procedure’).