The European Commission has approved the purchase of Suez waste management operations by Lidl owner Schwarz Group in Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Poland.
Schwarz Group subsidiary PreZero will complete the acquisition, although it isn’t clear if this transaction will be affected by the recent announcement of Veolia’s intention to buy Suez.
However, the European Commission was concerned that the acquisition would lead to the combined entity having a disproportionate dominance in the lightweight packaging market in the Netherlands. Therefore, the Lidl owner has agreed to divest the entirety of Suez’s lightweight packaging business in the Netherlands.
European Commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager said: “Competitive markets at every level of the recycling chain are a crucial contribution to a more circular economy and essential to achieve the objectives of the Green Deal.
“With the divestment of Suez’s sorting plant in the Netherlands, the acquisition can go ahead while preserving effective competition in the sorting plastic waste market in the Netherlands.”
