Just Eat’s £200m takeover of Hungryhouse referred for CMA investigation

The £200m merger between UK takeaway giant Just Eat and Hungryhouse has now been referred for an in-depth merger investigation.

Earlier this month, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that it would refer the deal for an in-depth investigation because of concerns that the merger could lead to worse terms for restaurants using either company.

However, Just Eat was allowed the opportunity to offer ways of addressing these concerns.

During this time Just Eat has failed to address these concerns, therefore the merger will now be referred for a ‘phase 2’ investigation by an independent group of CMA panel members.

Both companies provide online takeaway ordering services. These give restaurants the opportunity to reach a wide pool of people, as well as offer customers the convenience of choosing from a large range of takeaway providers in one place.

Following its initial investigation into the merger, the CMA has found that the companies are close competitors because of the similarity of their service and their geographical coverage.

The regulatory body rejected claims that on-demand delivery rivals such as Deliveroo and UberEATS provided sufficient competition in the online takeaway market due to their more localised coverage and servicing of restaurants which commonly lack their own delivery service.

The deadline for the final decision in regards to the acquisition is November, 2nd 2017.

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