Prior notification of a concentration (Case COMP/M.6729 — SNCF Participations/Strukton Rail/Europool) — Candidate case for simplified procedure  Text with EEA relevance
Date: 2012-11-15
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: France, data processing, economic concentration, merger control, rail transport, software, transport company








C_2012349EN.01002201.xml










15.11.2012   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 349/22





Prior notification of a concentration
(Case COMP/M.6729 — SNCF Participations/Strukton Rail/Europool)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
2012/C 349/10






1.


On 31 October 2012, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertakings SNCF Participations SAS (‘SNCF-P’, France), controlled by Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (‘SNCF’, France), and Strukton Rail BV (‘Strukton Rail’, the Netherlands) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the undertaking Europool BV (‘Europool’, the Netherlands), which controls the undertakings Eurailscout Inspection & Analysis BV (‘Eurailscout’, the Netherlands) and Erdmann-Software GmbH (‘Erdmann-Software’, Germany), and by which the undertaking SNCF-P acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of a newly-created subsidiary of Eurailscout (the ‘Service Company’, France), by way of purchase of shares.










2.


The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:






—


for SNCF: various economic activities, including railway, road and overseas transportation of goods and passengers. SNCF is the operator on behalf of the French rail network manager ‘Réseau ferré de France’ of technical services for the building of the transportation plan and the management of railway traffic as well as maintenance, works and engineering services on the French railway network,










—


for Strukton Rail: development, installation and maintenance of rail systems,










—


for Eurailscout: mobile collection and monitoring of data relating to the state of the railway infrastructure,










—


for Erdmann-Software: development and sale of software for data related to the measuring and monitoring of railway infrastructure,










—


for the Service Company: mobile collection and monitoring of data relating to the state of the railway infrastructure mainly in France.














3.


On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the EC Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved. Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under the EC Merger Regulation (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the Notice.










4.


The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.
Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number COMP/M.6729 — SNCF Participations/Strukton Rail/Europool, to the following address:





European Commission




Directorate-General for Competition




Merger Registry




J-70




1049 Bruxelles/Brussel




BELGIQUE/BELGIË










(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘EC Merger Regulation’).

(2)  OJ C 56, 5.3.2005, p. 32 (‘Notice on a simplified procedure’).