Russian antitrust sets behavioral remedies for Bayer-Monsanto deal

MOSCOW, Nov 8 (PRIME) – A company resulting from a merger between Germany’s Bayer and U.S. Monsanto may dominate the Russian agricultural market, the Federal Antimonopoly Service said in a statement on Wednesday and ordered the firm to ensure access to its technologies and digital farming to local firms.

Bayer plans to close the U.S. $66 billion purchase of Monsanto February 2018.

“This may lead to a substantial increase in the joint company’s market share up to reaching a dominant position in all relevant markets dependent on the abovementioned technological changes; as well as to a substantial elevation of the entry barriers for market player lacking some of those unique technical and data capacities,” the service said, adding that it decided to define some behavioral remedies for the deal.

The service “has chosen to conditionally approve the merger requesting the merging parties to agree on effective technological transfer and provision of data access to the Russian market participants necessary to upgrade their technical and data capacities in the sphere of plant breeding and digital farming.

“The merging parties are also requested to provide non-discriminatory access for independent developers and service providers to their digital farming platforms to avoid potential foreclosure,” the statement read.

To comply with the terms, Bayer will have to sign an agreement with a competent company defined by the service in three months. The company will be responsible for monitoring and support of implementation of the remedies, the service said.

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