Repair and refurbishment of electronic products: the Autorité clears the acquisition of control of the SBE Group by the Cordon Electronics Group

Parties to the transaction

The Cordon Electronics and SBE groups are mainly active in the repair and refurbishment of electronic and household electrical products.

The Autorité examined the market for the repair and refurbishment of electronic and household electrical products for the first time.

Following an investigation and market tests, the Autorité emphasised that the parties' repair and refurbishment activity with a view to returning the product to the original user is distinct from repair and refurbishment activity with a view to reselling the product to new users in reconditioned form, which the Autorité had already identified [1].

In fact, reconditioning is closer to the production and sale of a new product, whereas repair and refurbishment enable an end customer's appliance to be made functional again.

Repairing and refurbishing products with a view to returning them to the original user is part of an environmental approach that promotes reparability and extends product life.

The transaction is not likely to affect competition

The Autorité found that the parties' position will be limited after the transaction and that they will face genuine competition from logisticians offering repair services, authorised European repairers, manufacturers and constructors insourcing the repair activity.

The Autorité therefore unconditionally cleared the transaction.

[1] The Autorité had previously analysed the business of repairing electronic and household electrical products solely from the angle of reconditioning, as an activity belonging to the market for the supply of telephony products - Decision 22-DCC-28 of 10 March 2022 regarding the exclusive control acquisition of Recommerce Solutions by United.b.