The Federal Cartel Office has no objection to the takeover of eBay classifieds by the Norwegian Adevinta. The subsidiary of the Schibsted publishing group operates numerous advertising portals in various countries and is also active in Germany with Shpock. “It is true that the eBay project will bring classifieds and Shpock together under the Adevinta umbrella,” explains the President of the Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt. “Nevertheless, the project does not lead to a significant impediment to competition, since Shpock only generates low sales in Germany and has very low market shares.”

“Sufficient alternative options” According to the assessment of the cartel watchdogs, there is sufficient competition for classified ads portals from both established providers and new providers such as Facebook Marketplace. Consumers would admit “still have sufficient alternative options”. Specialized transaction platforms for cars, real estate and job offers also exert competitive pressure on classifieds portals.

Adevinta took over the eBay Classifieds Group, which includes classifieds as well the vehicle market belongs to mobile.de, announced in the summer. The Norway paid a good 9 billion US dollars in cash and shares for the ad marketplace that is already proverbially known in Germany (“What last price?”). This means that eBay, which sold the StubHub ticket platform for $ 4 billion in November 2019, becomes a major shareholder in Adevinta.

(vbr)