UPS is suing the European Commission (EC) for compensation after its decision to block the takeover of TNT Express in 2013. The Commission ruled against the takeover on anti-trust grounds, but the decision was later annulled after the General Court of the European Union has found that UPS was denied the right to a fair hearing.
UPS is seeking €1.7bn in compensation. It is asking the EU’s General Court to award it compensation plus interest and taxes it would pay on any windfall payment, according to details of the case published in an EU Court filing on Monday.
UPS had been prohibited from acquiring TNT as the EC alleged that it would reduce competition to three (UPS, DHL and FedEx) or even in some markets two (UPS and DHL) major cross-border, intra-EU express players.
However, the decision was annulled after complications concerning the econometric model used to determine the competitive environment. UPS had seemingly been denied the opportunity to challenge the final model which had been developed, which was materially different from the one which had been used throughout the review process.
Source: Bloomberg/EU
