Court turns down Remondis bid to buy DSD

An appeal by Lünen, Germany-based Remondis to purchase Cologne, Germany-based Duales System Holding GmbH & Co. KG (DS) has been turned down by a court in Düsseldorf, Germany. The loss in the appeal means the case may not be heard by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice.

The takeover bid by Remondis, one of the largest waste and recycling companies in Germany, also was rejected in July 2019 by the Bundeskartellamt, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, or national competition regulator.

In Germany, DSD operates the Grüne Punkt (Green Dot) system for packaging recycling in several highly populated regions. According to an online news item by the KunststoffWeb plastics information services website, the most recent court ruling went against the Remondis takeover because the firm would be able to “take a dominant position” in Germany’s glass recycling sector.

An online interview published by the Bundesverband Secondary Raw Materials and Disposal eV (BVSE), a German association for secondary raw materials and waste disposal, has its managing director Eric Rehbock saying many BVSE member companies are happy with the decision.

“The decision is good news for the entire recycling and disposal industry in Germany,” says Rehbock. “We have received an enormously positive response from companies far beyond our association.”

Continues Rehbock, “If by far the largest waste disposal company [Remondis] took over the largest dual system to date, this would have had a significant impact on the market. The market power is unique and overwhelming in the case of Remondis. Therefore, our assessment that there would be significant obstacles to competition in the event of a takeover is clearly correct.”

Rehbock portrays the BVSE as representing medium-sized waste and recycling companies in Germany. He states, “We have been seeing a growing concentration on the waste disposal market for some time. Many medium-sized companies are bought up by the big players in the industry. In many regions of Germany there is a decline in participation in tenders for waste disposal contracts. It is a very dangerous development. You have to take targeted countermeasures here.”