Referral to national authorities : The European Commission decides to refer entirely to the Irish Competition Authority the proposed acquisition of joint control of companies active in the retail sector on the grounds of the sole effect on local competition (Apollo/Fitzwilliam/Wittington/Arnottis)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. Total referral decisions to national authorities are no longer rare (Commission statistics put the figure at 95 in 2015 from the outset). The commented decision dates back to 2014, but was not published on the Commission's website until 29 April 2015, without any explanation, as the Commission did not take long to reach a decision. However, it is always interesting to examine the extent to which it decides to refer the examination of an operation which otherwise has a Community dimension to the national authorities of a Member State in whole and not in part. In the present case, that dimension was due only to the presence of an investment fund, since