Last 15th July 2010 the merger of the two Dutch meat producers was notified and now the Commission has approved it.

The EC has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed merger of Weyl by Vion, two Dutch producers of meat products. The Commission concluded, after examining the operation, that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

Weyl is an international beef and calf processing company in bankruptcy. Weyl Beef Products, the biggest cattle abattoir and beef processing company in the Netherlands, slaughters around 7,500 cattle a week. With sales offices in various parts of the world, including Russia and Spain, and 3 production sites in the Netherlands and Germany, Weyl can justifiably describe itself as professional in beef.

Vion is an international food company which is active in the purchase and slaughtering of livestock, production and sale of meat products and derived convenience food products and ingredients. It has production and sales offices on every continent and has more than 27,000 staff members worldwide. Besides, it has an annual turnover of approximately €9,0 billion.

The Commission focussed its investigation on the potential competitive effects of the horizontal overlaps for the proposed acquisition in the area of purchase of live cattle and calves for slaughtering, sale of fresh beef and veal and abattoir by-products.

The investigation of the Commission revealed that the proposed transaction would not close off the market to competition as a sufficient number of competitors would remain in all of the above mentioned product markets. Therefore, the Commission found that the proposed concentration would not give rise to any competition concerns on these markets.