Brussels – The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of the printer business of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd of Republic of Korea by HP Inc. of the US. Both HP and Samsung’s Printer Business manufacture and supply branded regular format printers. Samsung’s Printer Business is also active in the market for the supply of unbranded regular format printers to other printer manufacturers. The Commission assessed the overlap of the parties’ activities on the market for the supply of branded regular format printers and the potential segments based on functionality (single function printers and multi-function peripherals), speed and format (A3 and A4 paper) on the worldwide, European Economic Area and national level.
The Commission concluded that the transaction would not have a significant impact on effective competition in the Single Market as there will be a number of companies that will continue to compete strongly with the merged entity, irrespective of the potential segmentation or geographic scope of the market. The Commission also investigated the relationship between the downstream market for the supply of branded regular format printers and the upstream market for the supply of unbranded regular format printers. The Commission concluded that the merged entity would not have the ability, or incentive, to shut out competing suppliers of these products as there are many alternative players at both levels.
