• The year 2021 was a record year in terms of business mergers and acquisitions.
• The President of UOKiK issued 300 decisions, which is 57 more than in the previous year, and conducted 376 concentration control proceedings.
• The decisions issued included 295 approvals of transactions, four conditional decisions and one prohibition of concentration.

The purpose of concentration control conducted by the President of UOKiK is to prevent mergers and acquisitions that would lead to a restriction of competition. According to the regulations, an intention to carry out a transaction is subject to notification to UOKiK if it involves entrepreneurs whose total turnover in the year preceding the notification exceeded an equivalent of EUR 1 billion worldwide or EUR 50 million in Poland.

"Despite the ongoing pandemic, last year was dominated by mergers and acquisitions. In total, we have conducted 376 proceedings, of which 329 were initiated in 2021. A total of 300 decisions were issued, including 295 concentration approvals, 4 conditional decisions and one prohibition. The cases under review mostly concerned the real estate, trade and energy industry," says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

The four decisions in which the approval depended on whether the acquirer would meet certain conditions concerned the concentrations of: Lux-Med – Lecznice Citomed, Carrefour Polska – Ingka Centres Polska, DOZ – Euro-Apteka, Super Zdrowie and MLV18 and Betamed – Air Liquide. The prohibition concerned the acquisition of Eurozet by Agora.

The concentration proceedings are a two-stage procedure. The first stage, which lasts up to 30 days, deals with cases in which there is no doubt about the negative influence on competition. More complex cases, e.g. ones that require market research,  move on to the second phase.  The vast majority of decisions (287) were issued after the first stage. The second phase of proceedings was necessary to issue only 13 decisions.

Furthermore, UOKiK provided opinions in 380 proceedings conducted by the European Commission with regard to the impact of a concentration on the Polish market

We would like to remind you that the UOKIK website provides information on all antitrust proceedings pertaining to concentrations, which are conducted by the President of UOKIK, as well as on the decisions issued in this respect.

Investment control

The investment control law came into force in 2020 as part of the government's Anti-Crisis Shield 4.0. Since then, the President of UOKiK has the ability to block the takeover of Polish companies important for public order, public security or public health by entities from outside the EU, EEA and OECD.

Investment control proceedings, just like the proceedings concerning concentration, are divided into two phases. The first stage is the preliminary investigation, which serves to separate cases that are simple and require no further investigation from those that are more complex. For cases concluded during this phase, the President of UOKiK issues a decision on refusal to initiate control proceedings and on non-objection to the transaction. Cases that may pose a serious threat to public order, public safety, or public health may be referred for proper control proceedings (stage two).

Last year, the President of UOKiK conducted nine proceedings, eight of which were initiated in 2021. Three decisions were issued; in two cases the President of UOKiK did not object to the transaction and did not initiate control proceedings, while One decision concerned the discontinuance of proceedings. In the remaining cases, the President issued decisions on refusal to initiate preliminary investigation because the transactions were not subject to notification to UOKiK.

Details concerning the provisions for investment control can be found in the published explanations.

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 246
E-mail: [SCODE]Yml1cm9wcmFzb3dlQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL