European Commission to Investigate Proposed Aon Acquisition of Willis Towers Watson

By Adriano Marchese

The European Commission said Monday that it will investigate the proposed acquisition of Willis Towers Watson PLC by Aon PLC after a preliminary investigation revealed competition concerns.

The commission said it will carry out an in-depth investigation into the effects of the merger of the two insurance and re-insurance brokers to determine whether it is likely to significantly reduce competition in the market.

The Commission's initial market investigation has already identified a number of concerns with regards to the supply of commercial brokerage services, it said.

In particular, it is concerned that the transaction may reduce competition for brokerage services to large multi-national customers especially in the risk classes of property and casualty, financial and professional services, credit and political risk, as well as cyber and marine.

"We have opened an in-depth investigation to assess carefully whether the transaction could lead to negative effects for competition, less choice and higher prices for European customers in the commercial risk-brokerage market," European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said.

The Commission now has 90 working days, until May 10, to release its final decision.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2020 12:11 ET (17:11 GMT)

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