The European Commission approved Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com’s plan to acquire MediaMarkt/Saturn, Europe’s largest electronics retailer, subject to certain conditions. JD.com and Ceconomy announced in a joint press release that all closing conditions have been met and the transaction will be completed in the next few days.
JD.com announced in July last year that it had signed an agreement to acquire Ceconomy, which is headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany. Ceconomy is the parent company of two major retailers, MediaMarkt and Saturn, and has a valuation of 2.2 billion euros. MediaMarkt and Saturn have more than 1,000 electronics stores, mainly in Germany but also in several other European countries, and operate online sales platforms.
Since JD.com’s acquisition of Ceconomy triggers the European Union’s Foreign Subsidy Regulations, which will officially take effect in July 2023, as well as the traditional antitrust merger review mechanism, the transaction must be reviewed and cleared by the European Commission before completion. The European Commission will officially accept the transaction declaration in April 2026.
After a preliminary investigation in May, the EU believed that JD.com "may have received direct subsidies, tax benefits or low-interest loans from the Chinese government that distorted the EU's internal market" in this acquisition, and launched the second phase of in-depth investigation on May 28 in accordance with the EU's Foreign Subsidy Regulations. The investigation focuses on whether these subsidies enabled JD.com to bid higher for the acquisition of Ceconomy, and whether these aids improved the competitive position of the combined entity.
In response to the EU's investigation, China's Ministry of Justice publicly stated in August 2026 that this constituted "improper extraterritorial jurisdiction" and ordered relevant parties to respond.
The acquisition has also attracted attention in Berlin. The German government has launched an independent investigation into whether the acquisition poses a risk to national security and approved the transaction with conditions at the end of June this year. The conditions attached are intended to ensure that the personal data of German customers is adequately protected. In addition, the German government was given broad supervisory control powers to revoke the approval in the event of violations.
After an investigation, the European Commission determined that JD.com had received subsidies from China in the form of preferential financing, tax breaks and grants. The European Commission also believes that the production capacity obtained in this way may eventually be provided to Ceconomy and may put pressure on competitors through "aggressive pricing."
Therefore, the European Commission announced on November 3 that it would grant conditional approval to the transaction in accordance with the Foreign Subsidy Regulations, including requirements to ensure that intra-group transactions after the merger between JD.com and Ceconomy, as well as financial support provided by JD.com to its future subsidiaries, must be strictly in accordance with market conditions to prevent cross-subsidies and distortion of the EU single market.
In addition, JD.com must promise that when it provides warehousing, logistics and technical services to other third-party retailers in the EU, the conditions and terms applicable to it shall be no less favorable than those provided to Ceconomy. The above commitments are valid for 10 years.
In response to the European Commission's decision to conditionally approve JD.com's acquisition of Ceconomy, JD.com stated that its business model and strategy remain unchanged and will continue to achieve accelerated growth based on this.
JD.com has annual sales of nearly $159 billion (2024) and is one of the largest retail groups in China and one of the top ten retail groups in the world, according to the EHI Retail Institute. The group has about 570,000 employees and its business also involves technology, logistics and healthcare. Its operations in Germany have so far been limited. In March this year, JD.com launched its online shopping mall Joybuy.
