On 18 August, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it would refer the merger for an in-depth investigation unless VTech offered acceptable undertakings to address the CMA’s competition concerns regarding the supply of toddler electronic learning toys, child laptops/tablets and child electronic reading systems in the UK.
The CMA gave VTech until 25 August to offer proposals to address the CMA’s competition concerns in lieu of a reference. As VTech has not offered any undertakings, the CMA will therefore now refer the merger.
A decision on the merger will be made by a group of independent panel members supported by a case team of CMA staff. The deadline for the final report will be 13 February 2017.
All information relating to the investigation will be available on the case page in due course.