UPS sues EU for €1.7bn over failure to wrap up TNT deal

United Parcel Service is suing the European Union for €1.7 billion in compensation for damage it claims to have suffered when regulators wrongly vetoed its attempted takeover of parcel delivery rival TNT Express.

UPS is asking the EU's General Court to award it compensation plus interest and taxes it would pay on any windfall payment, according to details of the case published in an EU Court filing on Monday.

The same court threw out a 2013 veto because merger watchdogs had failed to inform the Atlanta-based logistics giant when they changed an economic model used to weigh evidence.

The company, which filed its lawsuit in December, wants to “be put in the position it would have been in had the unlawful decision not been adopted”, it said in the filing. Blocking the deal prevented UPS “from materialising the benefits associated with that proposed transaction”.

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The EU has become one of the toughest regulatory hurdles for big takeovers, squeezing hefty concessions from global companies to allay concerns over how a deal might hurt competition in Europe. Firms are increasingly calling on the EU courts to check the commission’s powers, fighting its decisions to open probes, what it focuses on in a merger review and how it agrees on concessions with companies.

"The compensation being sought corresponds to what we believe, through objective assessments verified by expert third parties, to be the value of the opportunity wrongly prohibited by the European Commission, " UPS said in a statement.

The commission said it would defend itself in court. It is appealing the court ruling that overruled its decision to block the deal.

– Bloomberg