The European Commission will review the acquisition of the Israeli semiconductor manufacturer Autotalks by the US multinational Qualcomm following requests from Spain and 14 other Member States to re-evaluate the merger proposal, considering that it may affect competition in their territories since it eliminates a relevant competitor in a concentrated market.

The proposed acquisition does not meet the notification thresholds set out in the EU merger regulation, and could not be notified in any Member State, but Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden submitted initial referral requests based on the provision of the rule that allows them to request the Commission to examine a concentration that does not have a Community dimension but affects trade within the single market and threatens to significantly affect competition in the territory of the countries making the request.

Other countries from the European Economic Area had the opportunity to join the original referral requests and subsequently the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia joined the initial requests. This is the second time that the Commission has accepted referral requests.

Based on the information available to the Commission at this early stage, and without prejudice to the outcome of its full investigation, Brussels considers that the transaction meets the referral criteria in accordance with the regulation.

The Community Executive has asked Qualcomm to notify the transaction, which cannot be carried out without the authorization of the Commission, a merger that can combine two of the main suppliers of V2X semiconductors, a key technology to improve road safety, traffic management and reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, as well as for the deployment of autonomous vehicles.

In this sense, Brussels considers it important to guarantee that customers such as original equipment manufacturers or infrastructure managers maintain access to V2X technology at competitive prices and conditions.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Europa Press / dpa)

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