Do efficiencies ever deliver? Lessons from the UPS/TNT case

On 30 January 2013, the European Commission announced its decision to prohibit the
proposed acquisition of TNT Express (“TNT”) by UPS. The transaction would have reduced the number of major players in the global express delivery business, which comprises DHL, UPS, TNT and FedEx, from four to three. After a Phase 2 investigation, the Commission concluded that significant anticompetitive effects would be likely to occur in most European countries, despite the fact that DHL would have remained the largest supplier in many of those countries post-merger.