Statement Of Preliminary Issues Released For Trade Me’s Application To Acquire Homes.co.nz

The Commerce Commission has published a statement of preliminary issues relating to Trade Me Limited’s application for clearance to acquire PropertyNZ Limited. PropertyNZ Limited owns and operates the homes.co.nz website, while Trade Me owns and operates the Trade Me Property website.

The statement outlines the key competition issues that the Commission currently considers important in deciding whether or not to grant clearance to the proposed acquisition.

The Commission invites interested parties to provide comments on the likely competitive effects of the proposed acquisition. Submissions can be sent by email to registrar@comcom.govt.nz with the reference ‘TradeMe/Homes’ in the subject line.

Any submissions should be received by close of business on 24 March 2021.

The Commission is currently scheduled to make a decision on the application by 19 April 2021. However, this date may be extended as the investigation progresses.

The Statement of Preliminary Issues and a public version of the clearance application is available on the Commission’s case register.

Background

We will give clearance to a proposed merger if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

Further information explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on our website.

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