WELLINGTON, New Zealand—New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has granted clearance for Essilor International and Luxottica Group to merge their business activities in New Zealand. In a statement released yesterday, the Commission said that in making its decision, it considered the impact on New Zealand markets for the import and supply of unfinished prescription lenses, the wholesale supply of finished prescription lenses and frames, and the retail supply of prescription lenses and frames, contact lenses and non-prescription sunglasses.

Commission chairman Dr. Mark Berry said the Commission is satisfied the acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in New Zealand markets. “Competition is strong and we believe the merged entity will be sufficiently constrained by the presence of existing competitors with the ability to expand at all levels of the supply chain and in all relevant markets,” said Berry.

Essilor and Luxottica issued a joint statement on July 24, 2017 indicating that the proposed combination of their companies “continues to progress, with the antitrust process advancing in all jurisdictions,” VMail reported.

At the time, the two companies said they were conducting “an open and constructive dialogue” with the European Union’s Competition Commission and expected to have the transaction approved in the coming weeks.

The proposed merger is attracting closer scrutiny by European antitrust authorities. The head of the bloc’s competition watchdog said Saturday that the megadeal, which will create an industry giant with a market value of 47 billion euros ($56 billion), more than 15 billion euros in revenues and 144,000 staff, “will require thorough vetting by European antitrust authorities,” according to a report by Reuters. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said it was too early to say whether approval may require the companies to make significant concessions.

“These are companies that have very big market shares and also, when it comes to sunglasses and lenses for glasses, obviously this is an important market, it is a very valuable market so I cannot say,” she told Reuters on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti business conference in Italy.

Vestager said it is too early to say whether Essilor and Luxottica will need to make any adjustment in their merger plan in order to have the EU give the operation a green light. "Both groups hold very significant shares in markets, those of sunglasses and optical glass, which are of considerable size, and I cannot say anything at the moment," Vestager told Reuters. "Even in the case of a vertical integration like this one, when market shares of such magnitude are involved (...) an in-depth analysis is necessary."