Quite good discussions on ITA-Lufthansa deal - Vestager

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 4 - The proposed deal involving the purchase by Lufthansa of a 41% stake in Italy's ITA Airways against an investment of 325 million euros over the 2023-2024 period is a complicated case but not unlike other mergers in the past, EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said on Monday.
    "We are here to make sure that there is still competition in the market where companies merge," said Vestager, who has specific responsibility for competition.
    "It is up to the companies to figure out the right balance between the problems that need to be solved and what justifies the operation, it is up to the companies to decide that," she added, replying to a question on rumours that conditions are so stringent that the German carrier might be forced to abandon the deal.
    "As I see it, we have quite good open discussions with the companies in question," continued Vestager.
    "It is a complicated merger, but it is a merger like other cases we have seen," she concluded.
    In January the European Commission launched an in-depth investigation into the proposed deal between Lufthansa and ITA Airways, taking to phase two the antitrust examination of the transaction that began in late November after the Italian Treasury, currently the sole owner of the company that replaced the loss-making former flag-carrier Alitalia in 2021, and the German carrier formally notified Brussels of the plans.
    In light of the data gathered during preliminary investigations, the EC said "the transaction could reduce competition" on "several short- and long-haul routes".
    In particular, it considers that the agreement between ITA Airways and Lufthansa, signed in Rome last May, "could create or strengthen the dominant position" of the new company "at Milan-Linate airport" and so make it "more difficult for rivals to provide passenger air transport services to and from" the Milan hub.
    The EU executive has until June 6, 2024 to take a final decision. (ANSA).