Good for Business, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Mergers and take-overs

There have been increasingly more mergers in the fuel industry during the past four years, from which the Competition Council received ten merger reports.

In 2019, the Competition Council received 18 reports on pending mergers in 21 industries. One of the largest mergers last year the merger of Lacplesa Alus and Bauskas Alus breweries.

"In order not to increase market concentration and reduce competitive pressure, the Competition Council has to pay more attention to merger deals - especially at horizontal level when competing companies merge. Over the last four years, 15 horizontal merger deals were thoroughly assessed by Latvian competition law experts - 40 percent of them in the retail market for consumer goods. Two mergers were halted as they would cause significant damage to competition," the Competition Council said.

In the last four years, the Competition Council also conducted in-depth analyses in the telecommunications and digital content services, insurance, health, and agricultural markets.