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The U.S. has sued to dam a proposed merger between American Express Global Business Travel Group and CWT Holdings, saying the $570 million deal would get rid of competitors between the biggest and third largest suppliers of enterprise journey administration providers.
The deal threatens to undermine competitors for these providers within the U.S., the Department of Justice mentioned within the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal courtroom on Friday.
“American companies will face the implications, seeing larger costs, much less innovation and fewer decisions,” Doha Mekki, head of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, mentioned.
A spokesperson for GBTG mentioned the case is flawed and the corporate is evaluating subsequent steps.
“We firmly imagine that the proposed transaction would deliver important advantages to all enterprise journey prospects, suppliers, and staff,” GBTG mentioned in an announcement.
A spokesperson for CWT declined to remark.
GBTG executives considered the deal as a possibility to soak up what they considered as a “harmful competitor,” prosecutors mentioned within the criticism.
GBTG dealt with $28 billion of journey transactions in 2023, and has acquired a number of different journey corporations lately, in line with prosecutors.
American Express has a minority stake in GBTG, which operates as a separate firm.
The deal introduced in March had elicited considerations from British antitrust authorities.
