European Commission approves acquisition of Abertis by Atlantia

The European Commission (EC) has approved the proposed acquisition of Abertis by toll road and infrastructure management company Atlantia after concluding that the merger would not endanger competition in any of the markets concerned. The decision has been reached through an investigation into the proposed transaction and has been cleared by the EC under the EU Merger Regulation.
October 17, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The 1690 European Commission (EC) has approved the proposed acquisition of Abertis by toll road and infrastructure management company Atlantia after concluding that the merger would not endanger competition in any of the markets concerned. The decision has been reached through an investigation into the proposed transaction and has been cleared by the EC under the EU Merger Regulation.

EC examined the impact of the transaction on the markets where activities between the two companies overlap in the management of toll motorway concessions; the provision of electronic toll services and; the provision of equipment and services for intelligent transport systems.

The EC also found the transaction raised no competition concerns on these markets due to the presence of other significant competitors, the limited geographic overlaps between both companies’ motorway networks and that the market for toll motorway concessions is a highly regulated bidding market. 

In addition, the investigation examined the effect of the transaction on related markets such as food services on motorway service areas, as Atlantia’s largest shareholder Edizione is also the majority shareholder of food services provider Autogrill. The EC concluded that the merged entity would not be able to weaken the competition on the market for food services, notably because strong competitors to Autogrill will be able to continue bidding for food service concessions.

Charging, Tolling & RUC

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ASECAP examines tolling’s trials, tribulations and triumphs
    September 4, 2018
    If you want to get up to speed on the main issues facing the transport sector and tolling companies, ASECAP Study Days event in Ljubljana was a good place to start. Colin Sowman reports (Photographs: Louis David). Increasing populations, ever-higher technical and safety requirements, and electric and hybrid vehicles will provide both challenges and opportunities for tolling companies. The annual Study Days event organised by ASECAP (the European association for tolling companies) examined all of these aspec
    Read More
  • Cross border enforcement a logical step
    January 30, 2012
    The logic supporting a cross-border enforcement Directive for the European Union (EU) is both detailed and compelling. The White Paper on European transport policy published in 2001 included the ambitious objective of reducing by 50 per cent by 2010 the number of people killed on the roads of the EU. But since 2005 the reduction in the number of road deaths has been slowing down: overall, the period from 2001 until 2009 saw the number of fatalities decrease by 36 per cent. According to Community indicators,
    Read More
  • European Commission: tighter rules for safer/cleaner cars
    December 12, 2017
    The European Commission (EC), European Parliament and the Council have reached a political agreement on the commission proposal from January 2016 to raise the quality level and independence of type-approval and testing before a car is placed on the market. It would enable the EC to be able to initiate EU-wide recalls and impose penalties on manufacturers or technical services of up to €30,000 (£26,000) per non-compliant car.
    Read More
  • C-ITS in Europe: It’s the governance, stupid!
    March 3, 2023
    Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) is coming – in fact, it’s already here. But who has responsibility for making it work? Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom thinks there are lessons to be learned from the European experience
    Read More

Highlighted Content