BRUSSELS—Antitrust regulators for the European Union have suspended the deadline for their investigation into the $54 billion merger between Essilor and Luxottica after the companies failed to submit requested data. The European Commission, which is the EU competition watchdog that is conducting the probe, had previously set Feb. 26, 2018 as the deadline for reviewing the proposed merger, as VMail reported. The regulators suspended that deadline on Oct. 25, according to a post on the EU website.

“We’re missing an important piece of information from the parties, so we’re stopping the clock on the investigation,” a European Commission spokesperson told VMail. “We’ll restart it as soon as we receive the information.”

The European Commission opened its investigation on Sept. 26.

An Essilor spokesperson characterized the deadline suspension as “a technical step.” The spokesperson told VMail, “We are confident that the clock will be restarted in the next few days. We are working to provide the necessary information.”

Luxottica Group issued no statement as of VMail’s presstime.

The proposed merger has already been greenlit by Australia and New Zealand.