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The Commission Approved the Acquisition of Sara Lee’s
Air Care Unit by Procter&Gamble and Opened an in-depth
Investigation into the Acquisition by Unilever of the Company’s
Body and Laundry Care Businesses
*
Acquisition Procter&Gamble/Sara Lee
The European Commission accepted the request by five EU
competition authorities to assess the proposed acquisition of Sara Lee Air
Care by Procter&Gamble and authorized the acquisition
1
.
Operation
The operation concerns the acquisition of the air care unit of the Sara
Lee Corp. by Procter&Gamble. The deal was submitted for regulatory
clearance in Germany and in some other European Union countries because
the turnover of the merging parties did not meet the EU thresholds.
Parties
Procter&Gamble (USA) is active in the manufacture, development,
distribution, and marketing of household care, beauty care, and health care
among other consumer products. Sara Lee Air Care (USA) is a company
specializing in the manufacture and marketing of various types of air
fresheners.
Commission’s Examination under Article 22/1 of the Merger
Regulation
2
The national competition authorities of Germany, Belgium, Spain,
Portugal, Hungary, and the United Kingdom submitted a referral request
pursuant to Article 22(1) of the Merger Regulation to the European
Commission and called for the Commission’s examination on the impact
of the operation on their territories
3
.
The Commission accepted the referral requests and asked
Procter&Gamble to officially notify them of the operation.
*
Article of June 2010
1 The two procedures are independent of each other.
2 Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations
between undertakings.
3 According to this provision, Member States have the right to request the Commission to exam-
ine a concentration that does not have a Community dimension but affects trade between mem-
ber States and threatens to significantly affect competition within the territory of the Member
States making the request.