The EU Commission clears acquisition of the third-largest company by the second-largest company in the market for industrial chocolate, subject to conditions (Cargill / ADM)

Cargill/ADM: How far would you go for chocolate?* In a nutshell: This case involved assessing the horizontal overlaps between two of the top three producers of industrial chocolate in Europe. Key elements were the reconstruction of market shares based on a customer- and plant-based definition of the geographic market, as well as the assessment of current and future capacity levels. Whilst the specific features of the market (limited number of suppliers, product homogeneity) enabled an extensive market reconstruction in this case, these features are not present in all cases. 1. Introduction In July 2015, following a phase II in-depth investigation, the Commission cleared the acquisition of the industrial chocolate business of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) by Cargill, subject to