Green light for Conad Nord Ovest’s acquisition of Piùme

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has unconditionally cleared Conad Nord Ovest’s acquisition of Piùme, a retail drugstore chain.
Lear assisted Conad Nord Ovest from the early stage of the pre-notification phase, working closely with law firms PwC TLS and Reale to demonstrate that the relevant market for drugstore retailing is distinct from grocery retailing. The assessment combined multiple strands of economic evidence, including:
• designing, commissioning and analysing an exit survey at Piùme stores;
• analysing the effects of grocery store and drugstore entry on Piùme’s sales;
• comparing the product assortments offered by drugstores and grocery retailers; and
• examining Piùme’s store-opening patterns and the competitive implications of proximity to grocery stores and rival drugstores.
Following an in-depth Phase II investigation, the ICA endorsed the parties’ position and concluded that the transaction did not give rise to any horizontal overlap. This marks a departure from the ICA’s previous decisional practice.
The Lear team was led by Salvatore Nava and included Livia De Simone, Tommaso Carbonara, Mohamed Lamine Dahmani, Nada Gajic and Felice Maletta.

For more information, you can consult the Italian Competition Authority’s Weekly Bulletin No. 31/2026 here https://lnkd.in/dnaumvgZ