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

  • Bringing V2I and V2V communications to workzone safety
    January 26, 2012
    Imran Hayee of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering talks about efforts to bring V2I and V2V communications into work zones. With USDOT backing and under the auspices of the ITS Joint Program Office Connected Vehicle Research (formerly IntelliDrive) research programme, M. Imran Hayee of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering along with team of his students, have been conducting research into the application of
    Read More
  • Will the European Electronic Tolling System serve its purpose?
    February 3, 2012
    ASECAP's Kallistratos Dionelis asks whether, despite the best intentions at the policy level, the European Electronic Tolling System can ever hope to serve the customer in the way it is intended to. Reality doesn't just happen. In many ways, reality is created. We first create or produce a reality and then we consume it; this takes time and has a cost that needs to be covered.
    Read More
  • C-ITS in Europe: jazz or symphony?
    August 18, 2021
    Communication between vehicles on the road is going to be increasingly important. Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom explains why music is a good guide to the way that this could work safely
    Read More
  • Kapsch looks to the future
    December 16, 2014
    Colin Sowman reports from a two-day meeting where industry leaders, academics and political advisers presented their thoughts on the future of mobility. Most governments do not dare to introduce tolling systems… they are too frightened.” So said Georg Kapsch in his capacity of chief operating officer of Kapsch TrafficCom, during a forward-looking press event at the company’s headquarters in Vienna.
    Read More

Highlighted Content