The Commerce Commission has published a statement of preliminary issues relating to an application from epay New Zealand Ltd seeking clearance to acquire Ezi-Pay Ltd.

Both epay and Ezi-Pay are involved in processing payments for pre-pay mobile telephones, landline telephone calling cards, gift cards and vouchers, and computer software and games purchase and activation cards.

The statement of preliminary issues outlines the key competition issues that the Commission currently considers will be important in deciding whether or not to grant clearance.

The Commission's statement of preliminary issues and the public version of the application are on the Commission's website at: www.comcom.govt.nz/clearances-register

The Commission invites submissions from parties who consider that they have information relevant to the Commission's consideration of this matter. Submissions can be sent to registrar@comcom.govt.nz with the reference epay / Ezi-Pay in the subject line of your email or to PO Box 2351, Wellington 6140 by 4pm on Friday 10 February 2012.

 

Background

The application

The application involves epay New Zealand Ltd acquiring Ezi-Pay Ltd. The acquisition will also include certain assets of Compass Communications and the assets or shares of EFTDATA Holdings Ltd. The latter two companies have the same shareholders as Ezi-Pay Ltd.

Assessing an application for a merger or acquisition

When considering a proposed merger, the Commission must decide whether the competition that is lost in a market when two businesses merge is substantial. We will give clearance to a proposed merger only if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

A fact sheet explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available for download at www.comcom.govt.nz/mergers-and-acquisitions-merger-assessment-fact-sheet