Fu Yun Chi
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Lufthansa executives and lawyers will attend a one-day hearing in Brussels on Friday to try to persuade EU antitrust regulators to approve the company’s bid for a minority stake in Italian rival ITA Airways.
Lufthansa last week submitted legal remedies to allay EU competition watchdog concerns about its 325 million euro ($346 million) bid for a 41% stake in state-owned ITA, Alitalia’s successor.
So far, the remedies are little different from the previous package, which the Commission rejected as insufficient, although Lufthansa may add remedies after the hearing, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
In addition to Lufthansa executives arriving in Brussels early on Friday, the closed meeting will be attended by lawyers from IAG, Condor Airlines, pan-European consumer group BEUC and travel lobby group eu Travel tech.
Guillaume Loriot, deputy director general of the European Merger Commission, as well as lawyers and representatives of national competition agencies will also be there.
The carrier disagrees with the watchdog’s decision to exclude budget airline Ryanair as a competitor and its insistence that only direct long-haul flights be taken into account in the investigation, rather than indirect long-haul flights.
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