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The amendment to the Danish Competition Act as of 1 July 2024 has made it possible to ‘call in’ mergers below the notification thresholds which would otherwise not be notifiable. The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority has now used this power for the first time and required two below-threshold mergers to be notified. In two decisions of 25 and 26 August 2025, the Authority decided that the mergers between, respectively, Uber and Dantaxi and OneMed and Kirstine Hardam must be notified.
The call-in power is for the first applied in connection with the merger between Uber and Dantaxi. The Authority assesses that there is a risk that the merger will restrict competition based, among other things, on Uber’s cooperation agreement with DRIVR Danmark, under which DRIVR’s customers can use Uber’s app to order taxis. After the merger, Uber’s app will likewise be used for Dantaxi. The parties completed the merger in May 2025. The notification requirement therefore comes after the parties closed the merger in May 2025.
Read the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority’s press
The merger between OneMed and Kirstine Hardam is likewise required to be notified. The Authority assesses that there is a risk that the merger will restrict competition, as the parties, after the merger, – according to the Authority – will be the largest player in the market for the sale of stoma care products and related services to municipalities in Denmark. The merger is not yet closed. The notification requirement thus means that the parties must await approval before they can close the merger.
Read the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority’s press release
The preparatory works to the amendment of the Competition Act state that the Authority was expected to use the call-in option in one to two cases per year. It is therefore noteworthy that the power has now been used twice in two days. It will be interesting to see whether practice will settle at around two cases a year, or whether the Authority will use the option more frequently – especially given that the two cases do not correspond to the examples in the preparatory works. The first two call-ins thus indicate that it can still be difficult for parties to sub-threshold mergers to predict whether a notification may be required.