The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) have both cleared CRH’s acquisition of a number of companies owned by Gibson in Northern Ireland.
CRH and Gibson both supply asphalt, concrete blocks, non-specialist aggregates, and contract surfacing; the authorities assessed a number of horizontal and vertical overlaps at both the local and national level across the island of Ireland. The case is interesting in that all of Gibson’s sites were in Northern Ireland, but both authorities had to consider cross-border trade issues; and that both authorities have different precedents for assessing local markets in aggregates and related products, with the CMA using a more complex decision rule approach.
Paul Reeve
Paul ReevePartner, along with Anthony Zhang
Anthony ZhangSenior Associate and the rest of the RBB team, worked with Arthur Cox and Travers Smith on this matter.
