The European Commission announced the opening of a four-month investigation into Carnival's hostile bid for P&O Princess, citing competition concerns, especially for the U.K. and Germany.
The commission said the deal raised serious competition concerns in the markets for regional trains, trolleys and trams in Germany, Austria, France and Sweden.
"The commission's policy is to verify that the divestiture to any purchaser does not raise new competition concerns," said a spokesman for the EU competition chief, Joaquín Almunia.
The commission said Tuesday that its initial investigation "indicated that the proposed merger would raise competition concerns in the markets for intermediation and ad serving in online advertising".
As such, the PCC is looking at the deal closely with the end view of potentially reviewing it for competition concerns, as a notified transaction, or by opening a motu proprio case.
As such, the PCC is looking at the deal closely with the end view of potentially reviewing it for competition concerns, as a notified transaction, or by opening a motu proprio case.
Italian regulators have also been probing competition concerns related to big data for more than a year.
There is some relief for António HortheOsório, the new Lloyds chief executive, as the commission could have demanded the deal be unpicked because of the "cause for regret" that competition concerns were ignored.
The European Commission, which rejected Universal's first offer of label sell-offs for not addressing competition concerns, will put Universal's sweetened offer to the music industry over the course of next week to gauge reponse.
"Excluding the maverick raises serious competition concerns".
