The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) approved, subject to conditions, the acquisition by Terveystalo Healthcare Oy of Hohde Group Oy on 3 September 2026. The approval is conditional on Terveystalo divesting its private dental care businesses in Savonlinna, Mikkeli and Seinäjoki to a new market operator, Emal Hammaslääkärit Oy. This is the first time since the Competition Act entered into force in 2011 that the FCCA has conditionally approved a merger during a Phase I investigation.
The FCCA examined the acquisition’s effects on competition. Both parties operate in the private dental care market, where they provide a wide range of general and specialist dental services as well as aesthetic dentistry. In addition, Hohde provides dental laboratory services through Loisto Laboratoriot Oy, primarily to dentists working in private dental clinics and in the public sector.
Based on the FCCA’s investigation, the acquisition would have harmful effects on competition in the private dental care markets in Savonlinna, Mikkeli and Seinäjoki, where market concentration would increase significantly and Terveystalo would become the clear market leader.
The FCCA did not identify competition concerns in other markets.
Commitments from the parties as a condition for approval
Competition concerns arising from a transaction can often be addressed by making approval conditional on remedies.
To address the identified competition concerns, the parties offered commitments under which Suomen Terveystalo Oy will divest its private dental care businesses in Savonlinna, Mikkeli and Seinäjoki to a new market operator, Emal Hammaslääkärit Oy. The commitments were implemented as a so‑called fix‑it‑first remedy, under which the parties enter into a binding agreement with the buyer on the sale of the businesses already during the FCCA’s investigation and the FCCA approves the buyer as part of its decision.
According to the FCCA’s assessment, the commitments are sufficient to address the competition concerns arising from the acquisition and to ensure that a competitive market structure is maintained.
First conditional approval during a Phase I investigation since the Competition Act entered into force in 2011
The FCCA’s previous conditional merger decisions have all been issued during Phase II following the opening of an in-depth investigation. In such in-depth investigations the FCCA examines the competitive effects of a transaction thoroughly and typically on the basis of extensive investigations.
Parties may, however, propose commitments at any stage of a merger investigation, for example, to facilitate a more expedient completion of the review process.
In this case, the parties sought a swift commitment solution, and it was therefore not necessary to complete an in-depth investigation of the transaction’s competitive effects.
This procedure saves resources for both the FCCA and the parties, as well as other market participants but requires that the competition concerns are clearly identifiable and that the parties are prepared to offer sufficient commitments already at an early stage of the investigation.
The FCCA’s decision contains business secrets of the parties. The decision will be published after the business secrets have been removed.