The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on 26 November 2018 that its Phase 1 probe into PayPal’s completed takeover of iZettle had raised concerns that the deal could leave PayPal facing insufficient competition in the UK market for mobile point of sale devices.
Concerns were also raised that the merger could negatively impact future competition in the emerging market for ‘omni-channel’ payment services, and potentially result in customers paying higher prices or receiving a lower quality service. The CMA said it would refer the deal for an in-depth Phase 2 investigation unless PayPal offered acceptable ways to address its concerns.
As PayPal has chosen not to offer proposals to address the CMA’s concerns, the merger will now be referred for a Phase 2 investigation by an independent group of CMA panel members. The deadline for the final decision is 21 May 2019.
Further details are available on the PayPal / iZettle case page.