Final report of the Hearing Officer in case COMP/M.2139 — Bombardier/Adtranz  (pursuant to Articles 15 and 16 of Commission Decision 2001/462/EC, ECSC of  23 May 2001  on the terms of reference of Hearing Officers in certain competition proceedings —  OJ L 162, 19.6.2001, p. 21 ) Text with EEA relevance
Date: 2005-06-30
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: audit, competition, economic concentration, electrical industry, merger control, railway industry, report

C 321/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

16.12.2005

Final report of the Hearing Officer in case COMP/M.2139 — Bombardier/Adtranz

(pursuant to Articles 15 and 16 of Commission Decision 2001/462/EC, ECSC of 23 May 2001 on the terms of
reference of Hearing Officers in certain competition proceedings — OJ L 162, 19.6.2001, p. 21)

(2005/C 321/02)

(Text with EEA relevance)

On 3 April 2001 the European Commission declared a concentration by which Bombardier acquired
within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 4064/89 sole control of the under-
taking DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems (Adtranz) compatible with the common market and with the func-
tioning of the EEA Agreement. This declaration of compatibility was subject to compliance with several
conditions and obligations.

One of the conditions concerned the Austrian undertaking Elin EBG Traction (‘ETR’), a subsidiary of VA
Tech AG, which is a supplier of propulsion technology for, among others, regional trains and trams/light
rail vehicles. After ETR's structural link with Bombardier was to be severed to render the proposed merger
compatible with the common market, it became necessary to create workload for ETR which would allow
the company to survive economically. Therefore, Bombardier was obliged to enter into a Joint Develop-
ment Agreement with ETR for cooperation between these two companies until 2006 in relation to the
tram CityRunner Type Linz, for which ETR supplies the electrical traction.

The justification for this obligation is likely to soon cease to exist: Siemens has proposed to acquire sole
control of VA Tech and thereby also control of ETR. Therefore, a change in ETR's financial structure is
imminent and ETR does not,
in that case, need any longer secured orders from Bombardier for its
economic survival. It is, consequently, no longer necessary to impose on Bombardier the condition to
source the electrical traction for its CityRunner Type Linz from ETR should Siemens acquire sole control of
ETR.

Subject to the clearance decision in case COMP/M.3653 — Siemens/VA Tech entering into force, and the
proposed acquisition of sole control of VA Tech by Siemens as approved in that decision being imple-
mented, the present draft decision proposes to revoke the aforementioned obligation imposed on Bombar-
dier pursuant to Article 8(5) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 4064/89.

In view of the fact that the proposed draft decision merely relieves Bombardier of an obligation and given
that Siemens, in their letter of 16 June 2005, explicitly dispense with any rights that might follow from
this obligation, the case does not call for any particular comments as regards the right to be heard.

Brussels, 30 June 2005

Serge DURANDE