Endeavour Group Limited

On 23 December 2022, the ACCC announced it had accepted an undertaking (the Undertaking) given by Endeavour Group Limited (Endeavour) on behalf of itself and its subsidiaries in connection with Endeavour’s proposal to acquire the Beach Hotel in Seaford, South Australia (the Proposed Acquisition).

The Undertaking requires that Endeavour divest its BWS Seaford store to an ACCC approved purchaser.

Endeavour sought an expedited review and offered the divestiture undertaking which would remove the competitive overlap between the parties in the local retail market for packaged liquor for off-site consumption (the Relevant Market)

Objective of the Undertaking

The objective of the Undertaking is to address the ACCC’s competition concerns as set out in the Undertaking that may otherwise arise as a consequence of the Proposed Acquisition.

The Undertaking aims to achieve this objective by placing obligations on Endeavour as set out below:

1. to ensure that the Divestiture Business is sold to an Approved Purchaser that will result in the creation or strengthening of a viable, effective, stand-alone, independent and long term competitor for the Relevant Market;
2. to ensure the purchaser of the Divestiture Business has all the necessary associated assets and rights to compete effectively with Endeavour in the Relevant market;
3. to maintain the economic viability, marketability, competitiveness and goodwill of the Divestiture Business prior to divestiture; and
4. to provide for the effective oversight of Endeavour’s compliance with this Undertaking.

Variation

On 8 March 2023, the ACCC consented to a variation to the undertaking. The variation corrects a number of minor typographical, referencing and formatting errors in the Undertaking but does not make any substantive changes to the Undertaking.