JD.com's $2.6 billion Ceconomy Takeover Move Faces In-Depth EU Probe — 2nd Update

By Edith Hancock

The European Union opened an in-depth foreign subsidies probe into Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com's planned $2.6 billion takeover of German retail company Ceconomy.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said Thursday that the deal could potentially distort competition in the bloc's internal market. It said that JD.com might have received foreign backing through preferential financing, tax incentives and grants, and that it is checking whether those potential foreign subsidies distorted the acquisition process by enabling JD.com to offer a high price and to support Ceconomy through its own technological and logistics abilities.

In July, JD.com agreed to launch a takeover offer for Ceconomy, with the support of the company's supervisory and management boards. The offer values Ceconomy --which owns brands MediaMarkt, MediaWorld and Saturn--at around 2.23 billion euros, equivalent to $2.59 billion.

It is the first Chinese deal the EU's competition watchdog has opened an in-depth probe into using its Foreign Subsidies Regulation--a relatively new rulebook that gives officials the power to scrutinize companies receiving what it views as unfair support from non-EU governments--and the latest attempt officials have made to scrutinize Chinese companies operating in the bloc.

The commission previously started an in-depth probe into Nuctech--whose controlling shareholder is part of state-run China National Nuclear Corp.--in December. The commission also started looking into Chinese wind turbine group Goldwind in February to probe if the company had been granted subsidies that distort the EU market.

JD.com said that it viewed the in-depth probe as a normal procedural step in the commission's review. "The proposed acquisition of CECONOMY AG by JD.COM will not be financed by any foreign subsidies granted by China or any other non-EU Member State, but instead is funded by external private bank debt and available cash from ordinary course business activities," it said.

The EU's competition watchdog has 90 days to look at the deal for potential issues. Companies can also offer remedies to the regulator to ease concerns.

The EU executive said it would aim to wrap up its probe by Oct. 2.

Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 28, 2026 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT)