L 23012 Official Journal of the European Union 1.9.2007 G) II (Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is not obligatory) DECISIONS COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 22 May 2007 declaring a concentration compatible with the common market and the functioning of the EEA Agreement (Case COMP/M.4404 — UNIVERSAL/BMG Music Publishing) (notified under document number C(2007) 2160) (Only the English version is authentic) (2007/595/EC) On 22 May 2007 the Commission adopted a Decision in a merger case under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (1), and in particular Article 8(2) of that Regulation. A non-confidential version of the full Decision can be found in the authentic language of the case and in the working languages of the Commission on the website of the Directorate-General for Competition, at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/ competition/index_en.html SUMMARY OF THE DECISION This case concerns a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (the Merger Regulation), by which the undertaking Universal Music Group Inc. (Universal, USA), belonging to the group Vivendi SA (Vivendi, France), acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Council Regulation control of the whole of the undertaking BMG Music Publishing Group (BMG, Germany et al) which currently forms part of the Bertelsmann group, by way of purchase of shares and assets. Universal is a subsidiary of Vivendi which is an interna- tional media company. Its worldwide activities include music recording and publishing. Universal is active in music publishing through Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). BMG is part of the Bertelsmann group (Bertelsmann) which is an international media company. BMG () O] L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1. comprises the worldwide music publishing activities of Bertelsmann. The market investigation has revealed that in the market for online rights in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom as well as on EEA-wide level the concentration would, in terms of serious doubts, significantly impede effective competition through unilateral effects. The commitments proposed by the parties are, however, suitable to remove the compe- tition concerns. 1. The relevant product markets Music publishing is the exploitation of intellectual property rights of authors (in the following, the term ‘authors’” will be used to cover both lyricists (text) and composers (music)). Generally, authors transfer copy- rights of their works (publishing rights) to music publishers and receive from the latter payments of advances and a share of the royalties generated by the commercial exploitation of their works.