Concentration in the retail market for health, beauty, and household products

Lear has been appointed by a leading private equity and alternative assets investment company wishing to acquire control over a number of companies active in the Italian retail market for health, beauty, and household products, for a total of three different transactions carried out by an investment company. In two transactions, Lear’s economists have assisted the client in proving that there was no reportable market due to the absence of horizontal overlaps or vertical relationships between the business activities of the target companies and the business activities of the portfolio companies controlled by the investment company. The remaining transaction was investigated by the ICA because of the anticompetitive concerns it may have generated: Lear’s economists assisted the client in preparing economic analyses of competition in the relevant market, in support of merger control filings and remedy preparation. Following the market test of the proposed remedies, the ICA concluded that the transaction would no longer raise competition concerns.