The Deutsche Bahn acquisition of NordCargo is authorized by the Italian Competition Authority

The Italian Competition Authority has unconditionally cleared the transaction by which Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway undertaking has acquired the control of NordCargo, an Italian railway undertakings operating in the field of freight transport (AGCM, decision 19285,11 December 2008,case C9819, Deutsche Bahn/NordCargo, Bollettino 47/2008).
The concentration affects two relevant markets: the market for freight land transport and the market for the provision of rail traction. The market for freight land transport includes train operators and other carriers such as intermodal and road operators. To determine the geographical scope of this market, the ICA applies the classical POD methodology based on pairs of points of origin and destination, which can be also regrouped, to make things easier, around a number of wider corridors. The market for the provision of rail traction is constituted by licensed railway undertakings in the meaning of Directive 91/440 EC directive, which tendentially correspond to national incumbent rail operators.
The ICA found that the concentration would not create or strengthen a dominant position in either of the two affected markets. The market shares of each of the merging parties in the market for freight land transport is lower than 1%. The market for the provision of rail traction is dominated by the incumbent operator, Trenitalia, whose quasi-monopolist position is unlikely to be challenged by the rail company resulting from the concentration.
DB so continues playing a leading role in the ongoing process of consolidation in rail industry. Under the auspices of Rail team it has entered into a cooperation agreement with the French rail incumbent operator, SNCF, for the provision of cross border high speed passenger services. As far as freight transport is concerned, DB has set up rail freight operations in Denmark and in the Netherlands. It bought a Spanish rail freight operator Transfesa. It also acquired a French maverick rail operator, EWS, after having entered into a set of commitments to address the competition concerns raised by the European Commission (see case M.4746). And now it purchases an Italy-based rail freight operator. In short, DB through its subsidiary Railion is now the main player in EC rail freight transport. It remain to be seen, however, whether and to which extent its expansionary policy might affect the competition structure of industry.

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