£6.2bn Just Eat and Takeaway.com merger given go-ahead

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given the Just Eat and Takeaway.com merger the green light.

The £6.2bn deal will see the UK food delivery firm join forces with the Netherlands based platform, which exited the UK market in 2016.

As part of its investigation, the CMA reviewed information suggesting that Takeaway.com might have been well-placed to re-enter the UK market and compete with Just Eat, had the merger not gone ahead.

Colin Raftery, senior director of mergers at the CMA, commented: “After interrogating how this deal is likely to affect the UK market, we are satisfied that there are no competition concerns.

“Millions of people in the UK use online food platforms for takeaways and, where a merger could raise competition concerns, we have a duty to rigorously investigate whether customers could lose out.

“In this case, we carefully considered whether Takeaway.com could have re-entered the UK market in future, giving people more choice.

“It was important we investigated this properly, but after gathering additional evidence which indicates this deal will not reduce competition, it is also the right decision to now clear the merger.”

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