South Korea's Fair Trade Commission has begun a pre-merger review of global mobility company Uber's acquisition of Delivery Hero (DH). If the deal is completed, Uber, which operates a domestic taxi-hailing platform, would also secure management control of Baedal Minjok. The FTC plans to examine the impact on market competition from linking services such as taxi-hailing and delivery memberships and advertising and promotions.

The FTC said on Monday it received and began reviewing a pre-merger review application for a business combination being pursued by U.S.-based Uber Technologies to acquire all shares in Germany's DH through a tender offer.

A pre-merger review is a system under which a company pursuing a business combination asks the FTC, before the merger filing period, to determine whether the combination would substantially restrict competition. Acquisitions of shares through a tender offer are generally subject to post-closing filing, but Uber applied for a pre-merger review before finalising the transaction.

Uber plans to complete tender offer subscriptions in November. Subject to securing at least 50 percent of DH shares plus 1 share and approvals from competition authorities in each country, it plans to complete the share acquisition in the second half of 2027.

DH indirectly controls Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baedal Minjok, through its subsidiary Woowa DH Asia. If the deal is completed, Uber, which operates "Uber Taxi" in South Korea, would gain management control of Baedal Minjok.

According to FTC data, based on monthly active users (MAU) in February this year, Kakao Mobility ranked first in South Korea's taxi-hailing platform market with 13.58 million users, followed by Uber with 650,000. In the delivery platform market, as of April, Baedal Minjok ranked first with 23.40 million users, followed by Coupang Eats with 13.15 million and Yogiyo with 4.21 million.

The FTC views the transaction as a "conglomerate merger" between Uber's taxi-hailing platform business and DH's delivery platform business. While it combines different business areas, the FTC judges that if Uber comes to control Baedal Minjok, various service linkages could occur, including taxi-hailing and delivery memberships and expanded advertising and promotions.

Uber is also presenting expanded cross-use between mobility and delivery services and expanded advertising and promotion services for merchants as key expected effects of the transaction.

Accordingly, the FTC plans to comprehensively examine the impact of the business combination on the competitive structure of South Korea's taxi-hailing market and delivery app market, business activities of competing firms, and choices of users and tenant businesses.

The FTC said, "We plan to conduct a thorough review in accordance with the standards and procedures set out in the Fair Trade Act."