CAIXY Caixabank (PK)

BRUSSELS--The European Union's antitrust authorities Wednesday cleared the creation of a joint e-commerce venture between Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica (TEF), CaixaBank (CAIXY) and Banco Santander (SAN.MC), saying it "would not raise competition concerns."

The joint venture aims to develop a virtual community for merchants and consumers in Spain providing, among other things, digital advertising and data analytics services to merchants.

The Commission judged that there is a "limited overlap" between the firms in the provision of digital advertising services, and that new entity would continue to face competition from well-established global players like Google and Yahoo!.

It dismissed the other competition concerns about the proposed joint venture.

Write to Laurence Norman at Laurence.norman@dowjones.com

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