The EU Commission clears the acquisition subject to conditions of global office supplies company by its leading competitor but it is subsequently rejected by US FTC (Staples / Office Depot)

Staples/Office Depot: House of Paper* In a nutshell: In February this year, the European Commission approved the acquisition of Office Depot by Staples. Three months later, the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition and the deal was subsequently abandoned. The case illustrates the challenges of defining product markets which concern a multitude of different products and provides insight into assessing competitive constraints in the absence of reliable market shares. The Commission examined other sources of evidence such as survey and bidding data. The assessment carried out by the four competition agencies of North America, Europe and Australia was aligned in terms of market definitions and approach