Slovakia's antitrust agency has banned the UK-based supermarket giant Tesco from purchasing four local stores owned by French peer Carrefour. The two retailers had designed a store-swap plan between them to exit markets in which they have low market shares. Carrefour was to swap 11 hypermarkets in the Czech Republic and four in Slovakia for eight Tesco supermarkets in Taiwan.
Slovakia's antitrust agency has banned the UK-based supermarket giant Tesco from purchasing four local stores owned by French peer Carrefour. The two retailers had designed a store-swap plan between them to exit markets in which they have low market shares. Carrefour was to swap 11 hypermarkets in the Czech Republic and four in Slovakia for eight Tesco supermarkets in Taiwan.
Tesco, UK's largest retailer, got approval from the European Commission to buy Carrefour assets in the Czech Republic in December 2005. At the same time, EU officials had asked the Slovak competent authority to examine the sale of Carrefour hypermarkets to Tesco in the country, news agency Reuters said.
The two retailers decided to proceed with the Czech side of the swap in the end of May 2006, without waiting for a decision from the Slovakian authorities. However, Tesco's acquisitions in Slovakia have been blocked because 'they would boost Tesco’s dominant market position', therefore leaving the group without relevant competition, a spokesperson for the antimonopoly agency said. The antitrust agency also said the UK giant can launch an appeal within two weeks.
