The Estonian Competition Board seems not to be following the EU practice in the treatment of natural persons as parties to concentrations (Tristafan, Aldo Parik and Oskar - NPNC Intressenter and Nefab)

On 31 August 2007 the Director General of the Estonian Competition Board (“ECB”) granted an approval to a concentration whereby OÜ Tristafan (“Tristafan”) and Mr. Aldo Parik (“Mr. Parik”) would acquire joint control over AS Oskar LT (“Oskar”), and on 13 September 2007 the Director General granted an approval to a concentration whereby NPNC Intressenter AB (“NPNC”) would acquire control over Nefab AB (“Nefab”). Besides being chronologically very close to each other these two decisions have one more thing in common - they concern the application and interpretation of merger control rules in concentrations where natural persons are involved as the party acquiring control. As can be seen below, the ECB appears to not follow the interpretation in the matter adopted by the European Commission