The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) will initiate further proceedings on the acquisition of Med Group Hammaslääkärit by Colosseum Dental Group AS. In its further investigation, the FCCA will examine whether the planned acquisition significantly impedes effective competition on the Finnish market, or a key segment of the market.
Colosseum Dental Group is an international company focused on providing oral health and dental services. In Finland, Colosseum Dental Group owns Oral Hammaslääkärit Oyj, a nationwide dental health services company. Med Group Hammaslääkärit is part of the Finnish social welfare and health care services group Med Group, whose parent company is Med Group Holding Oy. Med Group Hammaslääkärit offers private dental health care services under the ONNI hammas (ONNI tooth) brand.
Based on the FCCA’s initial assessment, the acquisition may have harmful effects on competition. To evaluate the effects on competition, the FCCA will investigate further to determine, among other things, the extent that public-sector dental care will create competitive pressure on private-sector services and in which geographic areas will companies create competitive pressure on the parties to this acquisition.
The FCCA may approve the acquisition as such, attach conditions to the approval or request that the Finnish Market Court prohibit the acquisition. According to the Competition Act, the further proceedings may not take longer than three months.
The FCCA’s decision includes business secrets of the parties involved. The decision cannot be published until the business secrets have been removed, i.e. in around two weeks’ time.
More information:
- Senior Research Officer Samuli Muotka, tel. 029 505 3680, firstname.lastname@kkv.fi
According to the Competition Act, the FCCA must be notified of the transaction if the combined turnover of the parties to the corporate transaction exceeds 350 million euros and the turnover from Finland of at least two of the parties exceeds a combined total of 20 million euros. The FCCA will approve a corporate transaction if it has none of the harmful impacts referred to in the Competition Act. The FCCA will intervene in corporate transactions if its investigations suggest that the acquisition substantially impedes effective competition on Finnish markets or a substantial part of the markets, particularly through the creation or reinforcement of a dominant market position. Where necessary, notifications of acquisitions are considered in two stages. The so-called first stage takes a month at most. If the acquisition is clearly not harmful to competition, or if the harmful effects can be prevented by means proposed by the parties to the acquisition, the acquisition is approved during the first stage. If not, the FCCA decides to conduct a further investigation of the matter, during which the acquisition and its competition effects are investigated in further detail.