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Company merger enforcers investigate Deliveroo and Amazon
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating delivery giant Amazon’s multimillion pound investment into food delivery giant Deliveroo. The CMA has launched the first of two possible investigatory “phases”: the first phase “will decide whether the deal has created a serious lessening of competition in the British food delivery market,” according to the Guardian. This does not mean the investment, which amounts to a minority stake, will be blocked: the regulator can then decide whether Amazon or Deliveroo can provide satisfactory assurances that the deal does not constitute a merger. If they fail to meet those criteria, the investigation will proceed to phase two, in which the CMA could block the deal.
At the time of the deal, former Eater London contributor Soheb Panja — who has written about Deliveroo’s impact on the London restaurant market extensively — noted that “the Deliveroo deal suggests Amazon still believes in the strategic value of food delivery as a long term business, but didn’t see it worthwhile slugging it with Uber/Deliveroo to get scale. The three of them battling away would have meant a brutal price/commission battle.” That slugging is, by another name, competition, and if Amazon and Roo Foods, which trades as Deliveroo, were to bypass that in merging, the CMA could deem the investment inadmissible. Deliveroo says it “is cooperating fully with the CMA.” [Guardian]
And in other news...
- Big Mamma’s two wildly extra Italian restaurants, Gloria and Circolo Popolare, could be getting a new sibling in Covent Garden.
- Even ElBulli’s dessert maestro Albert Adrià can’t break avocado toast’s death grip on brunch.
- Chef with Michelin star pedigree Angelo Sato could make chirashi and katsu sandos the sleeper hits at London’s next huge food hall, Market Halls West End.
- Aggressively slick coffee and lifestyle brand % Arabica chooses Covent Garden for its first London coffee shop.
- GBBO’s judging goes full “W T F” on Pastry Week.
- U.K. supermarket Iceland makes a weird flex in launching curries, chicken strips, and a pizza dosed with extraordinarily hot Carolina Reaper chillies. “Scarily Spicy.” [Mirror]
- Good tweet:
[guy who's about to invent croutons]
— Scary Terry F (@daemonic3) October 16, 2019
*eating salad* i wish this hurt