Germany: Muller to sell Tuffi brand, license Landliebe to allay anti-trust concerns

Muller, the leading Germany dairy firm, is to divest the Tuffi brand of milk and cheese products to a third party dairy company.

The sale was a condition of Muller’s purchase of part of FrieslandCampina’s portfolio in Germany, which has just been greenlighted by competition regulators. Similar anti-trust concerns lay behind the regulator’s decision to require Muller to grant exclusive, irrevocable brand licences for use of the Landliebe brand for an unlimited period.

“With these commitments, we ensure that independent third parties take over FrieslandCampina’s market position in these branches and that competition thus remains intact”, the Bundeskartellamt said in a statement on its decision.

While Muller will see some significant additions of market share with regard to products such as fresh milk, long-life milk, yoghurt, pudding, semolina pudding, curd, butter and cream, the group’s combined market shares will remain below the 40% threshold for the assumption of market dominance, the regulator added.

Source: Lebensmittel Praxis / Bundeskartellamt