Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.10348 — Global Payments/Erste Group/Payone Businesses) Candidate case for simplified procedure (Text with EEA relevance) 2021/C 269/05
Date: 2021-07-07
Institutions: Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission
Subjects: banking, economic concentration, electronic money, financial services, merger control, payment system, provision of services








C_2021269EN.01000501.xml










7.7.2021   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 269/5






Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.10348 — Global Payments/Erste Group/Payone Businesses)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2021/C 269/05)

1.   
On 28 June 2021, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).
This notification concerns the following undertakings:






—


Global Payments Inc. (‘Global Payments’, USA),










—


Erste Group Bank AG (‘Erste Group’, Austria),










—


The Austrian POS merchant acquiring and POS terminal provision and management businesses (the ‘PAYONE Austrian Divestment Business’) of Ingenico Group S.A. (‘Ingenico’, France), belonging to Worldline S.A. (‘Worldline’, France).




Global Payments and Erste Group acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the PAYONE Austrian Divestment Business.
The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of assets.


2.   
The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:






—


for Global Payments: a financial services company that provides various payments solutions to merchants, issuers, businesses and consumers worldwide,










—


for Erste Holding: an Austrian financial services group which offers banking and financial services in Central and Eastern Europe,










—


for the PAYONE Austrian Divestment Business: providing point-of-sale (‘POS’) merchant acquiring services and POS terminal provision and management services in Austria.






3.   
On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the 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 Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (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. The following reference should always be specified:
M.10348 — Global Payments/Erste Group/Payone Businesses
Observations can be sent to the Commission by email, by fax, or by post. Please use the contact details below:
Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu
Fax +32 22964301
Postal address:





European Commission




Directorate-General for Competition




Merger Registry




1049 Bruxelles/Brussel




BELGIQUE/BELGIË







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

(2)  OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.