Competitor, unhappy with Romanian eMAG’s PC Garage takeover

Romania’s Competition Council shouldn’t approve the takeover of PC Garage, one of the biggest local IT&C retailers, by eMAG, the largest online retailer in Romania, says Tiberiu Pop, the owner and CEO of cel.ro, the second-biggest local IT&C retailer.

He claims that the transaction would help eMAG further consolidate its leader position in the online retail market.

“We analyze filing a complaint with the Competition Council, as such a move in the market will strongly impact competition in this market. PC Garage will benefit from new funds for marketing, which will make it even harder for us to remain in the market,” Pop said, cited by local Ziarul Financiar.

Cel.ro recently announced that it was looking for an investor. The retailer had sales of EUR 40 million last year, compared to eMAG’s EUR 353 million.

PC Garage, which is controlled by local investor Marius Ghenea, had sales of EUR 37 million, in 2015. Tiberiu Pop said that he too was interested in taking over PC Garage but didn’t have the resources to pay the price Ghenea asked, which was around EUR 8 million.