UPS has accused the European Commission of preventing a €5.2 billion investment in Europe by blocking its acquisition of TNT Express last year.
The US carrier was responding to publication of the summary of the Commission’s decision. It said that not only had the Commission prevented the investment, it had prevented “better services and pricing, and more important, an improvement of the European logistics infrastructure in those economies that are still struggling to return to economic growth”.
UPS highlighted the fact that the Commission’s analysis recognised that 95 per cent of the combined UPS and TNT business was not problematic.
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“Additionally, there were no concerns in the countries that drive 80 per cent of European Union GDP, namely France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK. In the 15 countries where concerns were identified, UPS proposed significant and tangible remedies.”
UPS appealed against the Commission’s decision to block the transaction in April 2013. It argued that the decision was not based on an accurate assessment of the multi-product nature of customer contracts; it erroneously focused on a single product (next day cross-border shipments); ignored significant evidence from UPS and TNT about the strength and number of other competitors; and considered only a fraction of the efficiencies that would have been created following the acquisition.
