UK Competition Appeal Tribunal issues judgement regarding Tobii’s Divestiture of Smartbox

Tobii AB (publ) today comments on the latest events regarding the Smartbox acquisition. The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) today issued a judgement regarding Tobii’s appeal concerning the divestiture of Smartbox. In parallel to the appeals process, Tobii has maintained an ongoing divestiture process in line with the British Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) initial decision.

CAT has today issued a judgement finding that the CMA was only partially correct in its decision making. CAT has asked Tobii and CMA for further submissions and is expected to issue a final order within the coming weeks.

“Tobii will now review the judgement finding in more detail and continue the process with the CAT and the CMA. We will also continue with the divestment of Smartbox and adjust our course of actions depending on the progress in these parallel tracks”, said Henrik Eskilsson, CEO, Tobii Group.

Background
In October 2018 Tobii AB (publ) acquired Smartbox Assistive Technology Ltd, a UK based company operating in the field of assistive technology for communication.

Upon the announcement of the acquisition, the CMA opened an investigation under UK competition law. The two companies’ brands and operations have been held separate, pending the completion of the CMA’s review.

The CMA announced the final conclusions of its investigation on August 15 and required a full divestiture of Smartbox by Tobii. Tobii appealed the decision to the CAT.

This information is information that Tobii AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, on 10 January 2020, at 5:30 p.m.CET.