JD.com receives FSR approval for $2.5 billion acquisition of electronics retailer Ceconomy 

Compass Lexecon advised JD.com during the European Commission’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (‘FSR’) review of its proposed acquisition of German electronics retailer Ceconomy. The European Commission conditionally approved the transaction under the EU’s subsidy rules in November 2026, after an in-depth review.

Situation

On 30 July 2025, JD.com, a leading global provider of supply chain-based technologies and services, announced its decision to make a voluntary public takeover offer and enter into a strategic investment partnership with Ceconomy.

Ceconomy is a leading European omnichannel platform for consumer electronics with its MediaMarkt, MediaWorld and Saturn brands. The company combines a strong e-commerce presence with more than 1,000 stores across eleven countries.

After a preliminary investigation, the Commission launched an in-depth inquiry into the transaction in May 2026.

Our role

Compass Lexecon advised JD.com and its external legal counsel, Baker McKenzie, during the in-depth investigation of the Commission’s FSR review. We conducted several analyses assessing the economic terms of loans obtained by JD.com and whether such loans could lead to actual or potential distortions of competition in the European market.

Outcome

The European Commission has issued conditional approval for the acquisition under the FSR on 3 November 2026 (case FS.100253). This is the third in-depth FSR merger review by the European Commission. Compass Lexecon has advised on all three in-depth FSR merger cases to date.

The team

The Compass Lexecon team, led by Jorge Padilla and Vanessa Yanhua Zhang, included Alan Rozenberg, Cecilia Li, Verdi Choo, Richard Zhao, Vladimir Tsimaylo, William Bian, Elaine Zhang, Kitti Perger, Shawn Teo, India Riordan, Janet Cao, and Luna Lu.

The team worked closely with JD.com’s external legal counsel, Baker McKenzie, including Dirk Horcher (partner, Munich), Anahita Thoms (partner, Berlin), Bram Hoorelbeke (partner, Brussels), Laura Liu* (partner, Beijing), Yini Ouyang* (associate, Beijing), Pavlo Prokhorov (associate, Brussels), Sarah Zhao* (associate, Beijing), Frederik Alexander Dörr (associate, Berlin), Vanessa Wüstneck (associate, Berlin), Beau Maes (associate, Brussels), and Dr. Florian Kotman (counsel, Düsseldorf).^[1]

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