Special Report 81
The Austrian company Miba AG and the German company Zollern GmbH & Co. KG intend to merge their plain bearing operations into a joint venture, in which Miba is to hold a 74.9 per cent stake and Zollern a 25.1 per cent stake. The Federal Cartel Office had prohibited the merger on 17 January 2019 on the grounds that it would lead to a significant impairment of effective competition in the market for plain bearings with large bore diameters. The companies involved subsequently submitted an application for ministerial authorisation on 18 February 2019. The Monopolies Commission recommends that ministerial authorisation should not be granted. The public interest grounds put forward by the applicants do not outweigh the restriction of competition identified by the Federal Cartel Office.