Canon Loses Appeal Against EU 2016 Fine

On Wednesday Canon lost its challenge against a 28 million euros ($29.4 million) EU fine after Europe’s second-top court upheld the sanction imposed for jumping the gun in a 2016 acquisition, reported Reuters.

In 2019 a decision the EU said Canon breached the rules by using a so-called “warehousing” two-step transaction structure involving an interim buyer to purchase Toshiba’s medical unit before gaining regulatory clearance.
Companies which close a deal without first securing EU regulatory approval or provide misleading information during the regulatory review can face fines up to 10% of their aggregated turnover under EU merger rules.

The unorthodox method allowed Toshiba, which was struggling for cash after an accounting scandal, to book proceeds in time for the financial year-end ending in March.

The Luxembourg-based General Court backed the EU competition enforcer’s finding. “The (European) Commission was therefore right to observe that the Court’s case-law distinguishes between the concepts of ‘concentration’ and ‘implementation of a concentration’,” judges said.

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