Commission's decision to clear acquisition of Arriva by Deutsche Bahn is conditional to the commitment to divest Arriva  Deutschland including the rail and bus business in Germany. Further to this commitment, the Commission approves this transaction in which it is considered to be a sign about potential benefits of cross-border integration in the newly liberalised transport markets.

Commission's investigation focused on the rail and bus passenger transport markets as well as rail freight markets in several EU Member States, in particular in Denmark, the UK and Germany. After notification of the transaction to the Commission on 22 June 2010 and publication in the OJEU on 29 June, the Commission opened investigations and competition concerns on the German rail and bus markets. Deutsche Bahn as the rail incumbent and largest bus operator still enjoys very high market shares and Arriva Deutschland has become, in spite of high barriers to entry, one of the major competitive forces in the German rail and bus markets.

Deutsche Bahn and Arriva main activities

• Deutsche Bahn is the incumbent rail and bus operator in Germany. It has activities inter alia in rail and bus passenger transport services, freight services, logistics services and the operation of railway infrastructure and stations in Germany, but also in a number of other European countries.
• Arriva (Public, PINK:ARRVF) is a European rail and bus operator with activities inter alia in the UK, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden.

To address the Commission's concerns, Deutsche Bahn offered to divest Arriva Deutschland which comprises the entire Arriva rail and bus business in Germany. These commitments fully remove the overlap in a clear manner and received a positive feed back in the market test. The Commission therefore concluded that the modified transaction does no longer raise competition concerns.

As pointed put by the Commission this decision shows that it is open for cross-border integration in the newly liberalised transport markets provided that such transactions do not in any way reduce competition, in particular in the home market of the acquirer.