By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Advent-owned NielsenIQ has made another attempt to secure EU antitrust approval for its merger with German peer GfK, with an EU decision due by June 20, according to a European Commission filing on Friday.
The U.S.
consumer market research company pulled its first filing three weeks ago, just before the EU competition enforcer was due to open a full-scale investigation into the deal.
The company submitted its second request for approval of the deal on Thursday.
NielsenIQ, which is present in more than 90 markets covering more than 90% of the world’s population, is prepared to sell GfK’s consumer panel business to win the EU green light, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said last week.
GfK’s consumer panel business covers 122,500 households and 1,800 retailers, with a combination of diverse data that shows patterns, trends and predictions.
Rivals say the merger could reduce competition and even result in a monopoly in some markets.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, Editing by Louise Heavens)
