Competition watchdog revokes ban on Takeway.com and Just Eat integration
Just Eat Takeway has been given the go-ahead to integrate the two food delivery businesses after the UK’s competition watchdog revoked an order to keep the firms separate.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued an initial enforcement order in January, which prevented the two food delivery firms from integrating their businesses.
Amsterdam-based Takeaway.com bought Just Eat earlier this year following a bidding war with South African rival Prosus.
However, the CMA launched a last minute probe into the merger in January over concerns that it could damage competition in the marker.
The regulator said today that it is continuing to assess the tie-up, but that “based on the evidence it has received in its assessment of the transaction to date, it is appropriate to revoke the initial enforcement order”.
It said it had not decided “whether it is or may be the case that a relevant merger situation has been created and whether the creation of that situation has resulted or may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services”.
Takeaway removed itself from the loss-making UK market in 2016 after hemorrhaging £768,000 that year alone in the face of stiff competition from companies such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
It has since climbed the ranks and become one of Europe’s largest delivery firms, processing 71m orders out of 11 countries last year.