Full function JV: The European Commission holds that a concentration resulting from the change of the organization of a joint venture, making a non-full-function joint venture a full function joint venture, is subject to Regulation (EC) 139/2004 (American Express/Fortis/Alpha Card)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. – EC. Comm, 3 October 2008, American Express / Fortis / Alpha Card, case. COMP/M.5241 For those who have rubbed shoulders with it, the distinction between full-function and non-full-function joint ventures is not always straightforward. Yet the issue is important: the former fall under Community merger control and must be notified, but the latter do not. The reported case concerns a joint venture between American Express and Fortis. Initially, this joint venture, named Alpha Card, was not a full-function joint venture. Its creation was therefore outside the scope of Community merger control and this operation had no place in our chronicle. However, a