The Commerce Commission has received an application from epay New Zealand Ltd seeking clearance to acquire Ezi-Pay Ltd.    The acquisition would 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.

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

In considering the application, the Commission's role is to determine whether the acquisition would harm competition in the market, to the extent that there would be a substantial lessening of competition.

A public version of the application is available on the Commission's website at www.comcom.govt.nz/clearances-register.

Background

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 http://www.comcom.govt.nz/mergers-and-acquisitions-merger-assessment-fact-sheet/