UPS Sues EU Regulator for $2.15 Billion Over Decision to Block TNT Deal
February 26 2018 - 6:58AM
Dow Jones News
By Natalia Drozdiak
BRUSSELS -- United Parcel Service Inc. is suing the European
Union's antitrust watchdog for EUR1.74 billion ($2.15 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 the combined
company and DHL, a unit of Deutsche Post AG.
However, the European Union's second-highest court last year
overturned the decision on the basis of procedural missteps by the
regulator. The commission is appealing that judgment.
UPS is now seeking compensation from the commission for the 2013
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, a spokesman for 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 commission will defend itself in court, an EU spokesman
said.
The 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 06:43 ET (11:43 GMT)
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