Indian competition watchdog CCI has approved the merger of Publicis Groupe S.A. (Publicis) and Omnicom Group Inc. (Omnicom) that was announced on July 28 this year.

According to sources, the Delhi office of Amarchand Mangaldas advised both Publicis and Omnicom in receiving an unconditional clearance of the mega-merger from the CCI creating the world’s largest advertising company. This merger was the first time the CCI reviewed a transaction in the advertising and marketing communications sector.

The filing was made using the Form II long form notification. Following a detailed review of the Form II filed by the parties, the CCI found that the activities of the parties could be broadly classified into marketing and communication services (MCS) and media buying services (MBS).

In its assessment, the CCI observed that the parties to the transaction currently compete, and will continue to do so, with a large number of local and global suppliers of MCS and MBS. The purchasers of these services are large advertisers, which exercise sufficient countervailing buyer power. Accordingly, the CCI cleared the merger.

It is understood that the Delhi Competition team comprising Partner Naval Satarawala Chopra along with Principal Associate Harman Singh Sandhu and Associates Rohan Arora and Dinoo Muthappa represented the parties before the CCI.

International law firms Darrois Villey, Nauta Dutilh and Wachtell Lipton are advising Publicis on this merger, while De Brauw and Latham are acting for Omnicom, according to the Lawyer.

The first two Form II filings have been made by Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai Competition Law team in the Gujarat Gas deal and Diageo-United Spirits deal. All three Form II filings including Publicis-Omnicom have been cleared in Phase I.

The Amarchand team was not available for comment at the time of going to press.