ICA and Apotek Hjärtat receive unconditional merger clearance

On 9 January 2015 the Swedish Competition Authority cleared the pharmacy merger between ICA and Apotek Hjärtat without conditions after a phase I investigation. RBB worked together with Gernandt & Danielsson, counsel to the acquiring party, on local market analysis which showed that that there was no prospect of substantial lessening of competition. We also analysed pricing strategies and found that there were no incentives for the parties to increase prices following the merger. The full decision is available here.