The Commission has approved an operation whereby GKN Plc and Brambles Industries Limited, both major international companies based in the UK and Australia, acquire jointly Mabeg Holdings Gesellschaft für Entsorgungswirtschaft mbH und Co. KG, a medium sized-operator on the German market for waste management services. GKN and Brambles are involved in a number of joint ventures of which two, Cleanaway in the UK and Leto Recycling in the Netherlands, are also related to waste management. In assessing the operation the Commission found that there was no geographic overlap in the non-hazardous waste management market and that any potential overlap in the hazardous waste management market was not substantial. In addition, the concentration did not create any significant vertical or conglomerate links between the parents and the joint venture, in particular because of the small scale of the business. The Commission has therefore decided to declare the operation is compatible with the common market and the EEA agreement. ***
