European Commission re-clears Sony BMG tie-up

The European Commission has cleared again the 2004 transaction which brought together the recorded music businesses of Sony and Bertelsmann. The Commission was required to re-evaluate the transaction after the Court of First Instance annulled the original decision in 2006. The latest clearance decision followed an in-depth investigation described by Commissioner Neelie Kroes as “one of the most thorough analyses of complex information ever undertaken by the Commission in a merger procedure”. As with the first case, the investigation focused on whether the merger was likely to create or reinforce a collective dominant position among the major record producers. RBB advised Sony and Bertelsmann alongside lawyers Cleary Gottlieb and Slaughter & May.