The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the notified merger between the eBay Classified Group and Adevinta. As a result of the merger the previous eBay subsidiary eBay Classifieds Group will be taken over by Adevinta. In the future eBay as well as the previous parent company Schibsted will hold shares in Adevinta. The eBay Classifieds Group includes the online classified ad platform eBay Kleinanzeigen and the online platform mobile.de which specialises in car sales. However, it does not include the auction platform eBay. In Germany Adevinta operates the online classified ads portal shpock.de. The merger was cleared in the first phase of merger control.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “eBay Kleinanzeigen is by far the largest online classified ad platform in Germany. Although the merger will place eBay Kleinanzeigen and Shpock under the umbrella of Adevinta, the merger will not significantly impede competition because Shpock’s turnover and market shares in Germany are very low.”

Moreover, effective competition is provided in the classified ad platform segment both by incumbent providers and newcomers such as e.g. Facebook Marketplace. Consumers will still have sufficient alternatives to choose from. Competitive pressure is also exerted on classified ad platforms by specialised transaction platforms for cars, real estate and job vacancies.