JD.com partnership: Austria review challenging

Düsseldorf, 27 March 2026 – CECONOMY AG provides an update on the current status of the foreign investment clearance process in Austria in the context of the planned strategic partnership with JD.com.

CECONOMY entered into an investment agreement with JD.com in July 2025 to further grow as Europe’s leading omnichannel platform for consumer electronics. With the partnership CECONOMY wins a global player with unparalleled retail expertise as well as cutting-edge technology and logistics capabilities.

JD.com has already received all necessary merger control clearances as well as foreign investment clearances in France and Italy. In Germany and Spain, we expect to receive clearance in due course.

In Austria, clearance remains outstanding and it is currently uncertain whether and when it will be granted. The investment control authority, which is part of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism (BMWET), has expressed concerns regarding the approvability of the transaction. To date, the authority has refused to engage in a joint solution-finding process.

JD.com has already made clear commitments regarding locations, jobs, data protection and management independence when the transaction was announced and has offered extensive additional remedies to the Austrian investment control authority.

Jan Niclas Brandt, CEO MediaMarkt Austria, says: “With the remedies offered by JD.com and CECONOMY, MediaMarkt’s future data protection policy would resemble that of an aerospace company. This goes far beyond what is customary for a retail company.”

Kai-Ulrich Deissner, CEO CECONOMY, says: “There seems to be a misunderstanding about what constitutes the business model of a retail company: We bring products to market already today, but we do not manufacture them. With the partnership CECONOMY wins a global player with unparalleled retail expertise as well as cutting-edge technology and logistics capabilities. That is why we continue to do everything we can to make this partnership a reality – for the benefit of our customers, Europe and, of course, the Austrian economy.”

CECONOMY and JD.com are working intensively to find a solution together with the Austrian authority to ensure that the Austrian business remains part of the transaction.

Whether CECONOMY can meet the expectation of completing the transaction in the first half of 2026 is currently unclear in the context of current developments in Austria.