UPS Suing European Commission for EUR1.74 Billion Over Blocked TNT Merger
February 26 2018 - 6:44AM
Dow Jones News
By Natalia Drozdiak
BRUSSELS--United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) is suing the EU's
antitrust watchdog for 1.74 billion euros ($2.14 billion) plus
interest over the regulator's 2013 decision to block a planned $7
billion merger with Dutch parcel-delivery company TNT Express NV,
according to court documents published Monday.
The European Commission formally blocked the UPS-TNT deal at the
end of January 2013 over concerns the overnight-parcel-delivery
market would effectively become a duopoly between a combined
UPS-TNT business and DHL, a unit of Deutsche Post AG.
UPS is now seeking compensation from the commission for that
decision, which the company says prevented it from "materializing
the benefits associated with that proposed transaction."
"We feel strongly that the proposed acquisition would have
constituted a good deal for logistics customers," said Gregg
Svingen, international director for public relations and
communication at UPS. "The compensation being sought corresponds to
what we believe, through objective assessments verified by expert
third parties, to be the value of the opportunity wrongly
prohibited by the European Commission."
The European Commission will defend itself in court, an EU
spokesman said.
The European Union's second-highest court last year overturned
the European Commission's 2013 decision on the basis of procedural
missteps by the regulator. The commission is appealing that
judgment.
The overnight-parcel-delivery landscape has changed since the
commission's 2013 decision, and any renewed attempt at a merger
between UPS and TNT looks unlikely.
After UPS called off its merger in mid-January 2013 following
stiff objections to the deal from the EU, logistics rival FedEx
Corp. stepped in to acquire TNT in May 2016 for EUR4.4 billion,
expanding its reach in Europe.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 26, 2018 06:29 ET (11:29 GMT)
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